


Follow the Beacon

by KesonaFyren



Category: RWBY
Genre: Abuse, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Blood, Child Abuse, Cuddling & Snuggling, Death, Drug Use, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Injury, Jealousy, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Murder, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Pining, Pre-Canon, Sexual Harassment, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Theft, Trauma, Underage Drinking, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2020-02-15 23:52:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 42
Words: 53,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KesonaFyren/pseuds/KesonaFyren
Summary: Qrow has imagined running away for years. Of course his dream would come true in the worst possible way, that's just his luck.Raven knows an opportunity when it's staring her in the face. It's a risk, sure, but no one in the tribe would dare challenge a bandit Huntress.Taiyang is tired of his sleepy island home. The local Beowolves haven't been a challenge for years—he wants to get out there and do something that matters.Summer knows the world is broken. Gods help anyone looking to widen the cracks.As the strongest freshman team at Beacon Academy—and the least cohesive—team STRQ has drawn plenty of attention from the staff. But why are they all so concerned with that new expansion in Vale? And who is the mysterious young Headmaster?I know there's a million of these, but this one's mine.[I've upped the rating to Mature because of future content, but each chapter will continue to have more detailed content warnings and TLDRs as needed]





	1. Qrow—The Weak Die

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote As the Qrow Flies to try to get some ideas down so I could work on other projects…which went about as well as putting water on a grease fire. As soon as I realized it was plausible that the fall of Mountain Glenn happened during STRQ's Beacon days I couldn't let it rest.
> 
> My goal is to get monthly updates out at minimum, but I'll post on ~~Fridays~~ Mondays whenever I can. I'm trying to improve as a writer, so I'd love to hear one thing you liked and one thing you didn't! Just…please…don't post negativity without something positive…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [TW for chapter one: VERY graphic depictions of violence, blood, death, abuse. There's a TLDR at the bottom if you want to skip the details.]

Qrow threw himself down behind the barricade of sandbags, curling into a ball as the buckshot exploded on impact with the tavern wall above him. His aura was able to protect him from the shrapnel, but whatever Dust rounds they were using didn’t seem like they’d be as forgiving.

As if the team of Huntsmen hadn’t been enough of a clue, the fortifications proved this town had known the raid was coming.

“Hey now, this is between you and me!” Bones’ voice rang over the shots echoing from more distant parts of the village. 

A moment passed, then two, and nobody fired again. _Please don’t be waiting to blow my head off._ He took a deep breath and rose on his knees, peeking one eye over the sandbags.

“Then call your cronies off and leave this town alone!” the Huntress shouted, training her dual pistols on the pair. Qrow slid his shotgun almost to the top of the wall, ready to point it over and shoot, but a Huntsman was watching him with a scowl.

“My family’s gotta eat, gentlemen.” Bones didn’t budge, didn’t flinch, just calmly stared down the three trained fighters. Blood dripped slowly from the tip of his sword into the street, and his pistol hung nonthreateningly in his left hand. Vanta stood a pace behind, whip draped over her shoulders and glowing faintly with the air Dust braided into it. 

“You have a lot to answer for, Bones Branwen,” the other Huntsman bore a heavy axe with one arm and a large shield with the other. “Do you remember me?” His armor sparkled through the battle grime, reflected by the dozens of little golden plates hanging from the mail he wore over his deep blue robes. There was no fear in his eyes, only steely determination as he faced down the leaders of the tribe. Like a scene from a comic book.

_Why do I have to be one of the bad guys?_

“Yes...” Bones sounded almost mournful. “I remember. You were just a little too late.”

“Who hired you?” the Huntsman demanded, unmoved except for the slightest tension in the hand that gripped his axe. It was a beast of a weapon—one side bore a massive blade, and the other had to be the shotgun that had nearly killed Qrow earlier.

Bones chuckled. “I hate to disappoint you, but that particular broker died years ago.”

He hissed in anger, his hands tightening further on his weapon and shield. Qrow’s eyes narrowed—he’d believed Bones without question or hesitation—was his Semblance some kind of truth discernment? It’d make him easier to face in combat.

“I imagine it must be hard to hear. Wasn’t personal. Just taking care of my own,” Bones said. “He was a good one, your friend. Have you been looking after his family?”

“How do you know about them?“ The Huntsman’s calm mask was cracking, he was losing control—a mistake that could turn deadly.

“His last thoughts. I don’t get too many personal details from my Semblance, just training. Survival. But that always comes through, even stronger than strategy or skill. Their last thoughts.” He looked down at the pistol in his hand. “He was afraid for them.”

“And did your broker ask about them?”

Bones grinned. “I won’t kill a man’s family for another man’s grudge. But I’ll happily collect.”

“How magnanimous.” Derision bled into his words but relief showed in his posture.

“I’ve no quarrel with you yet, Huntsman, there’s no need for them to lose another protector.”

“You’re wanted on untold counts of murder and banditry, Branwen. We’re taking you in.”

Bones grinned wider, reminiscent of a Beowolf with his red eyes and bared teeth. The Grimm-like clothing didn’t hurt either. “You know what the penalty is for banditry. Do your killing yourself.”

“We’re not going to let you hurt anyone else.”

“No. I imagine you’ll help.” Bones sighed, shaking his head as he spun his sword once and flicked more blood into the street. “I’ve never killed an axe wielder before. Should be interesting.”

To the Huntsman’s credit, he didn’t attack in anger or flee in fear. He stepped forward, cautious, even as his partners took two steps to draw even with him.

Vanta struck first. Vanta _always_ struck first. The Dust in the cord didn’t even light up in warning, she’d kept it glowing the entire time. It flew out at the Huntsman that had been watching Qrow, light as air, curling around his legs and arms. Not tight enough to damage his aura, but more than enough to send him sprawling into the mud as it wound around him like a King Taijitu. Bones leapt forward, driving the other two back as Vanta kicked the man’s fallen weapon aside, wrenching the bindings tight.

Qrow leveled his shotgun on the sandbags, ready to give cover if they called him.

The axeman and the Huntress were good, attacking in turn to keep Bones from overwhelming one of them—they were just too outnumbered. Fighting him was like fighting every person he’d ever killed.

He ducked under her sword and leapt over his axe without even looking, striking at the crook of his elbow as he fired at the back of her knee. Aura could shield them from harm but not the full force of a blow, and they staggered another pace away from their friend. As long as they were occupied Vanta could deal with their partner.

Her aura sparked black against his yellow-green as she drained him dry. None of them must have known what she could do or they would have attacked her first. Either of the Branwen siblings alone were deadly, but together they were unstoppable. After all, Bones didn’t have to win, he only had to stall while Vanta did her work.

Bones sprang over the Huntsman’s shoulders and kicked him in the back of the neck as he landed, sending him toppling into his ally. Both of them sprawled, scrambling to collect their weapons and get their feet under them. A few feet away, the trapped man’s aura shone brighter for a moment before breaking, spilling sparks of yellow-green light into the mud.

“He’s ready!” Vanta barked, giving him a vicious kick he had no defense for.

The Huntress screamed in defiance, seizing the axe and firing the massive gun into Bones’ face.

_BOOM._

He disappeared in a plume of orange fire that sent the others reeling. Slowly, the smoke cleared, leaving him to lurch back to his feet. Wine-red sparks circled his head and shoulders, his aura dwindling but not broken yet.

He smiled wolfishly again and pointed his pistol squarely at the defenseless man behind him. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

His finger tightened on the trigger—

—and the gun exploded, shattering apart like hot glass on ice. Bones seized, aura snapping and skittering away even as he collapsed face first and unmoving in the mud.

Qrow stared, the world suddenly surreal. Why was Bones on the ground?…He couldn't… He, he'd get up… The shotgun slid forward, jolting him into re-tightening his grip before it could tumble over the wall out of reach.

Vanta screamed, slamming her foot down on her captive's neck, and he died with a jerk. The others leapt back to their feet, raising their weapons, but they were drained from their fight and Vanta now had the power of two. She caught the axe with aura-augmented strength and ripped it from the woman’s grasp even as the whip wound itself around her neck.

Qrow leapt over the barricade, firing again and again as he ran at the Huntsman, buying Vanta time. The man may have lost his axe, but the large shield still hung from his other arm. His aura blocked the rest.

Still, the force drove him back. Qrow kept up the barrage, until the man’s back hit the wall of a building. Just in time, from the warmth of the shotgun’s Dust assembly under his fingertips—it could only fire so many times in a row. He leapt forward at the man’s shield, slamming him into the wall as he bashed him in the face with the iron-hot barrels of the shotgun.

He roared in pain, his aura sparking the same deep blue of his robes as it snapped, and he sank to his knees clutching his head.

Down the street, the Huntress cut off mid-scream but Qrow couldn’t spare the other fight a glance. He raised the gun again, took aim— 

“You’re a child,” his enemy stammered, wide-eyed with shock.

His hand froze on the trigger.

The other man didn’t hesitate, springing forward into Qrow’s legs and knocking him to the ground. By the time he rolled to his hands and knees, the Huntsman had vanished through the building’s broken window. 

The familiar hum of Raven‘s portal sang behind him, followed by stunned silence. Qrow let his head drop, unable to meet her eye. 

“What happened?” she demanded, seizing his arm. “ _What happened to Bones?_ “

Qrow couldn’t answer, the image of their mentor falling replaying in his mind as he struggled to catch his breath. Her grip stiffened as she dragged him to his feet but he kept his eyes down on the road, on the filth caking his hands and clothes. 

It was hard to force the words out. “…Dust leak. His gun…” He couldn’t see Raven’s horror, but the panicked clench of her hand made it clear enough.

Vanta screamed again and their grips tightened on their weapons, but she was bent over her brother, screeching fury as she clutched at the wound that killed him. Bandits were trickling out of the buildings and alleys now, the distant gunshots fading with the last of the villagers’ resistance, replaced by the tribe’s worried murmurs.

Bones and Vanta had been their shield from the Huntsmen, and now one of them was dead.

Vanta’s voice broke under the strain, petering out into a weak rasp as she tried to catch her breath. Finally, she raised her eyes from her fallen partner—and met Qrow’s.

“You.” Her voice was low and ragged, but the assembled bandits fell silent at once. “ _You_ did this. You and your _damn Semblance._ “

His lungs seemed to squeeze, leaving him cold and breathless as if he’d fallen through ice into a freezing river.  The tribe closed ranks, pressing in without a word until they were shoulder to shoulder, circling the three of them and Bones’ body. Raven’s hand dropped from his arm.

“I told you!” Sanguin snarled, shoving his way into the ring. “I told you all the damn kid would start killing!”

Qrow’s gun rattled as a shiver ran through him. “N-no! I wouldn’t—I couldn’t—”

Vanta’s eyes were wild, her face twisted with more fury than he’d ever seen. “ _Traitor!_ “

Someone crashed into him from behind, throwing him into the mud and wrenching his sword from his grip. A foot slammed into his other hand as they tossed his shotgun aside, hands braced his arms and legs and neck. Qrow jerked, trying to pull free or curl into a ball, anything to escape—his own aura was blinding him as it held back their blows. Flickers of red hid their twisted expressions until his strength ran out.

His aura snapped with a kick to his stomach that left him gasping, but they didn’t stop until he was too dazed to even feel it anymore. 

“The weak die, the strong live,” Vanta said, somewhere distant. Someone shoved him onto his side—Bones lay a few paces away, staring sightlessly back. The forest of boots started to move and Raven’s went with them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [TLDR: One of the Branwens' raids goes horribly awry when the villagers are ready for them. Qrow watches from behind a barricade as the tribe's leaders and best fighters, Bones and Vanta, fight the Huntsmen and Huntress that are protecting the village. Bones killed their friend years ago.
> 
> The Branwens are winning when Bones's gun explodes in his hand, breaking his aura and killing him. Vanta kills one of the Huntsmen and the Huntress. Qrow fights the Huntsman that started the fight, but hesitates to kill him and is overpowered but left alive. 
> 
> Vanta publicly blames Qrow's Semblance for Bones' death. The rest of the tribe injure him badly and leave him for the Grimm. Raven does nothing to stop this and leaves with them.]


	2. Raven—The Strong Live

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [TW: graphic depictions of violence, blood, abuse, underage drinking, medical trauma, drug use. It's less intense than the last one but there's still a TLDR at the end]

“Drink,” Vanta spat, almost throwing the wineskin at her—it nearly fell through Raven’s shaking hands, but she managed to open it.

The rest of the tribe surrounded them, passing around whiskey and moonshine to drown their fear and anger and bloodlust, mask their scent from the Grimm. Bandits had learned how to make sure the monsters drawn in by a raid didn’t follow them out again a long time ago.

Raven couldn’t afford that kind of calm. One of her anchors was dead, another dying, and the last looked angry enough to kill her. She pretended to take a large gulp of the liquor before passing it back, watching silent and wary as Vanta took her turn.

Qrow’s connection itched. He was badly hurt, but it hadn’t snapped yet—she knew how that would feel now. He’d never make it to camp on his own in that state, she had to get Vanta too drunk to stop her from helping him.

“I warned him,” Vanta hissed, handing the skin to her again. “I told him we should have wrung the little wretch’s neck if he didn’t learn to turn it off. We should have been free of him _years_ ago!” Raven said nothing and feigned another drink, ready to run if she turned on her too.

“Now look at us.” Vanta twisted with a glare and Raven’s heart jumped into her throat—but she was only offering the liquor back again. “You’re better off without him.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Loud enough to hear, quiet enough to ignore.

By the time they reached camp, the wineskin was empty and Vanta was struggling to stay upright. Smoke still poured into the sky from the distant town, possibly the remains of Grimm slain by the survivors but more likely from the fires of the battle.

The link almost burned as they staggered through the gate and she had to grit her teeth against the near irresistible pull. He didn’t have much time. Finally, _finally_ , they made it to the tent and Raven dumped the semi-conscious Vanta on her bedroll.

Outside, the revelry had begun, sending her dodging behind tents and hugging the makeshift wall to avoid the others. She only strayed from the fringes to grab another skin of moonshine and a vial of poppy. Everything reeked of blood and smoke and booze, and in the center of camp a half-dozen people were singing badly.

The tent she shared with Qrow did nothing to block out the sound but it still felt safer than anywhere else. Their connection seared now, like fire licking at the rear of her mind—when she finally tugged on the thread, the relief was just as intense. The portal spun into existence and she leapt through back into the burning village.

Qrow lay in the mud at her feet, wheezing with his eyes half-closed. A Beowolf licked the blood from his shoulder, ignoring his weak attempts to shove it away.

Raven sprang forward, drawing her sword and swinging through the beast’s neck in a single motion and turning it to smoke that bit at her face. Qrow slumped, his arm splashing into the mud.

“Can you move?” she demanded.

It took a second for him to focus on her face and when he spoke it came out as a weak rasp, gravelly and cracking. “She’ll kill you too.”

“If you’re strong enough to get back to camp, you’re strong enough to live.” They didn’t have time for him to get himself together, keeping the portal open was much harder when she and her anchor were on the same side. She grabbed him under the arms and pulled—Qrow moaned in pain but didn’t speak again. Probably lacked the strength.

“Stay quiet,” she ordered, letting the portal close behind them as she dragged him onto his bedroll. It had taken more of her aura than she’d hoped.

She tipped the poppy solution down his throat, but they didn’t have time for it to work—he was losing too much blood. She shoved a corner of his blanket into his mouth and grabbed the moonshine.

He screamed as she cleaned his wounds, but with nothing to power his Semblance luck was with her and nobody heard over the makeshift gag and the bad singing. Someone, probably Sanguin, had taken a knife to his shoulder, leaving a half-dozen deep gashes that needed stitching.

Luckily again, Qrow passed out after about a minute and she could work without him thrashing.

By the time she had finished with the third cut it was hard to hold her hands steady. There should have been some sign of his aura returning by now, but his injuries stayed dark and empty.

If he died Vanta would still be furious, and she’d have nothing to show for it. She couldn’t return his body to the village, or even get it out of camp without being seen. Damn it, she _needed_ him. He was always the only anchor she could control.

At last she saw it—a tiny ember, like a single spark from a fire but the color of blood, blinked into existence over his heart. She paused in her work as it traced its way over his skin, drifting toward the nearest cut before sinking into it.

Putting him back together took hours. She had to steal more bandages twice, and she wasn’t sure enough of the splint she made for his arm. The sparks grew more frequent, but still formed alarmingly slowly and his aura was being consumed by his injuries as quickly as his soul produced it. With so much damage, it would probably be weeks before he’d be able to build a reserve. 

If he survived at all. He still hadn’t regained consciousness.

The rest of the camp had fallen into a drunken stupor forever ago, but eventually she’d done all she could and collapsed onto her own bedroll. Vanta would find them in the morning, and hopefully she wouldn‘t kill them both.

She bit down on her tongue, trying to hold back exhausted, frustrated tears. Why? She just couldn’t understand. _Qrow_ should have become the tribe’s leader, not Vanta, should have demanded that everyone else fall in line behind him the moment Bones fell. Couldn’t he see how afraid they were of him, of his Semblance?

Raven would give _anything_ for that kind of power—her own did nothing but put her at the mercy of others.

Still, she supposed she should be grateful for her brother’s appalling weakness. If he ever decided to take his rightful place in the tribe, she’d be as likely to die as anyone else when he bent them to his will.

 

*          *          *

 

“What did you _do?!_ “

Raven jolted awake, seizing the handle of the knife under her mat.

“ _You brought that traitor back here?_ “ Vanta’s hand seized the back of her head, smashing her face down onto her arm and holding it there, bending her nose painfully.

“No, I didn’t!”

“Well, you certainly took care of him,” she spat, shoving her down harder before letting go.

Raven sat up while she had the chance, keeping the knife under the blanket. Vanta would still have extra aura from draining those Huntsmen, and her own reserves still felt drained.

It was hard to meet her eye—Vanta had never been this angry at _her_. Raven fought to keep her voice steady. “The strong live, the weak die. He lived, so he’s strong.”

It was the tribe’s custom. If an injured bandit made it back from a raid, they’d proven their strength. Even if they needed help with the bandages. Vanta may lead the tribe now, but if she threw away the old traditions she wouldn’t lead for long.

Of course, she might just kill them both and blame Qrow.

Vanta seized her neck, aura crackling around her hand, and Raven almost slashed at her face on reflex. “Then you’d better hope you’re the next one he kills, because if you aren’t, I’ll feed you to the Grimm myself.” She shoved her back to the ground before letting go of her throat and storming from their tent.

Raven slowly released the knife, forcing herself to breathe. They should probably kill Vanta sooner rather than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanta's name comes from the color Vantablack, which is worth looking up if you've never heard of it because the Semple/Kapoor feud is nothing if not entertaining. Also, black absorbs all color wavelengths, which is how I came up with her Semblance.
> 
>  
> 
> [TLDR: Raven gets Vanta drunk, and once she's passed out, opens a portal to Qrow. She kills the Beowolf bothering him and takes him back through the portal to camp before taking care of his injuries as much as she can. When his aura doesn't seem to be returning at all, she panics because he might not live, but after a while she starts to see sparks in his injuries. She needs him alive because Vanta is the only other person she can portal to now that Bones is dead, and Vanta's abusive and scary.  
> The next morning Vanta is not pleased to see Qrow alive, but Raven reminds her of the tribe's tradition: if an injured bandit can make it back to camp they're entitled to medical attention. Vanta can't throw out tradition without weakening her control over the tribe, so she doesn't kill Qrow outright but scares Raven and leaves. Raven decides they probably have to kill her soon.]


	3. Summer—Summertime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [If you don’t like angst, go ahead and start here. A fun chapter! They do exist!]

Summer squinted through the rifle’s scope at the apparently deserted building, searching each window for any sign of movement. Of course, if a teacher had come in on Saturday to grade papers they’d hardly be pacing around their classrooms, but at least none of the lights were on.

Back on the field, preparations for the dance were now well underway. She took a few seconds to locate her mother and Huang, helping Tai and a few other students put up the large tents near the cafeteria doors. All busy and distracted.

Summer spun the rifle, extending Gungnir into spear form with a satisfying click. A twist and a shove let the shaft separate from the gun. Clamping the harpoon between her teeth, she slotted in the special Dust magazine she’d prepared.

It wasn’t a difficult shot. A huge banner stretched over the cafeteria doors, taped to the gutter. She took aim at the far side and fired, the modified ice round striking the tape dead center and freezing into a ball about the size of her fist.

Nobody on the field batted an eye at the sound of the rifle discharge, and she hadn’t expected them to. Gunfire was just background noise at a combat school like Signal, even on a Saturday. Three other shots had echoed over the grounds by the time the ice melted enough to fall from the wall, taking the soggy tape off with it. The banner fluttered down, still anchored on one side, to hang over the security camera on the corner.

Summer grinned and let the harpoon drop from her teeth into her hand. It glided into the rifle’s barrel with ease, and she aimed over the building before pressing the button on the stock. The Dust cores in the rifle and arrow glowed to life, repulsing each other, and she braced against the gun to keep it from flying in the opposite direction. The half-spear arced into the air, stabilizer fins popping from the shaft as soon as it left the barrel, and disappeared onto the school roof.

Perfect.

Her mother emerged from the tents carrying a stepladder toward the banner, and Tai sprang forward to stall. At best, they had a minute before the security camera was clear. Summer tossed her rifle into the box of tablecloths she’d been sent to retrieve and stepped from the bushes onto the sidewalk. Nobody spared her a glance as she strode right up to the wall and back out of sight of the field.

Around the corner, the ladder rattled under her mom‘s footsteps. “Ah, the tape’s wet. Tai, could you grab some more?”

“Sure, Mrs. Rose.”

The banner twitched as her mom started to pull it back into place. Summer dropped the box, grabbed the rifle, and activated the Dust cores again—this time to attract. The gun nearly leapt from her hands, but she was ready and tightened her grip as she flew into the air. The angle of attraction threatened to drag her against the brick, but she ran up the side of the building using Gungnir like a rappelling line.

Below her, the camera emerged as her mother dragged the banner away, but she rolled onto the roof out of sight. She retrieved the arrow and returned it to the rifle, folding her weapon to its most compact form before sliding it down the back of her hoodie. It took a moment to get it to clip to the magnetic holster, but finally it caught with a soft  _click_ and Summer moved for the entrance.

The door opened without trouble, and she peeled the tape from the latch before slipping inside and letting it lock behind her. No cameras in the emergency stairwell, luckily, though one pointed at the ground floor exit. Summer headed down to the second floor instead, and gave the handle a slow and tentative push. It still creaked louder than she liked.

Other than the faint growls of captive Grimm in a classroom, the hallway was silent and deserted. If the door opened more than a foot the cameras would catch it, but she’d always been on the small side. It wasn’t hard to squeeze through. The bank of lockers that ran right up to the doorframe provided a blind spot—she jumped, grabbed the top, and pulled herself up as quietly as she could manage. No one came tearing out of the classrooms at the sound of wobbling metal, though the Grimm growled a little louder as they sensed her nerves.

Her boots on the locker roofs sounded almost like swords clanging together, but she made it to the next classroom without falling from the narrow ledge or alerting anyone. Another door she could only open a crack waited at the other end.

This room was unique, with windows into the courtyard that were nearly blocked by a large tree. Summer slid to the floor and inched forward along the wall to the blind spot behind the teacher’s desk. It was easy to climb from the window to a sturdy branch and make her way to the ground. Leaves shielded her from the camera at the far end of the yard, and any movement would be passed off as a gust of wind.

It was even easier to climb back in through the window to the headmaster’s office, always left unlocked. No cameras either, thanks to the same employee privacy law that provided a blind spot behind the desk upstairs. Summer exhaled with satisfaction as she sat in the grand leather chair.

And nearly fell out of it again as the phone rang.

 _Just someone leaving a message._ She shook herself mentally. The computer snapped awake at her touch, demanding a password. Summer grinned and started to type.

 _SUMM3RTAIM3_.

It opened instantly, and she leaned back in the chair with a delighted smile. What should she dig through first? …His travel arrangements would probably still be in his email, if the state of his office at home was anything to go by. She clicked on the application.

_Password:_

“Oh, come on, who logs out of their email?!” She slapped the desk and tried again. _SUMM3RTAIM3_.

_Incorrect password._

Just perfect. The phone wasn’t helping her think either. “You’ve reached the office of Headmaster Azraq of Signal Academy, please leave a message...”

She scowled and typed  _BALT515_.

_Incorrect password._

She didn’t know any others. Maybe she should go through his latest documents instead? They were a lot less likely to hold anything useful...

There was _one_ more thing she could try. She started to type, _ST3RLINGRO—_

“Summer, knock it off.”

She froze, hands hovering over the keyboard, staring at the phone in abject horror. “B-Balt?” her voice squeaked so badly she winced.

“Come on, pick up.” He didn’t sound mad, but he definitely wasn’t happy either. “Azraq set up the webcam, I can see you in there.”

Summer hung her head and pressed the button. “Hi, Uncle Balt.”

“I thought you talked about this,” the desk speaker said.

“I didn’t get to talk,” she grumbled, leaning back and kicking at the floor so the chair spun slowly. “They did all the talking. I just want to know what they’re hiding from us!”

“It’s Huntsman business. Summer, they don’t tell me about their secret missions either.”

She paused, halfway through her second rotation. “…What, really?”

“I love Azraq and I trust his judgement. And he tells me what I need to know, even when Ozpin disapproves.”

_Ozpin._

A wild grin stole its way over her face as she stared at the phone in disbelief. She’d been hoping to get an imprecise location, or more cryptic and coded messages. Maybe today hadn’t been a total loss. “Ozpin?“ she repeated. The new headmaster of Beacon Academy, the mysterious academic that everyone joked was too young to attend the school, let alone run it? The one that had been appointed amid whispers of nepotism and conspiracy? _That_ Ozpin?

The line went silent. And then very...not silent.

“Swear jar, Uncle Balt!” Summer laughed, logging out of the computer and ending the call. This was _worth_ getting grounded.

Well, no point in hiding now. She walked right out of the office, around the corner, and out the front door.

“Summer? Where were you? I thought you were helping them set up for the dance on the back lawn!” her mom demanded, nearly dropping the box of tablecloths Summer had abandoned earlier.

“Azraq’s office.” She didn’t bother to hide her grin.

Tai stared at her, disbelieving. “What happened to stealth?!”

 “Were you involved with this?” Huang scowled down at him.

“No, definitely not.”

He shook his head, almost laughing. “I ought to ground you.”

“You broke into the school?” her mom demanded. “We told you he was leaving for a _classified_ mission, and you _broke into his office?!_ “

“No! Calm down! The doors were unlocked, so I just…walked in.”

Her mom didn’t look convinced, but she also had no way of knowing Summer had spent the better part of two years figuring out that route through the security cameras. “You’re going to make your uncles a batch of apology cookies, and then you’re grounded for a month.”

That was way too much! “ _Mom!_ “

“That sounds like an excellent idea, Claret,” Huang growled at Tai.

His jaw dropped. “Dad, come on! We’ll miss the dance!”

“Then you two shouldn’t argue if you want to convince us to let you go.” Her mom folded her arms. Summer and Tai both grumbled acknowledgement, and the four of them headed back toward the field.

 _Is Uncle Azraq even going to be home in time for the party?_ Wait. Maybe— “Is Uncle Azraq even going to be home from Solitas in time?” she blurted.

“Nice try, kiddo,” Huang said with a glare.

Summer grinned. “So he’s _not_ in Solitas.”

Her mom grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the Xiao Longs. “You’re going to have to try harder than that if you want to convince me to let you go to the dance, Summer.”

“I wasn’t going anyway,” she said. “Sorry, Tai! Balt caught me. They rigged the webcam. See you Monday!”

“Yeah, sure,” he sighed. Behind him, Huang looked like he wanted to laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone: Summer is so Pure and Motherly
> 
> Me: Summer’s more down for crimes than Jaune. Qrow’s resistance to the Airship Plan was just reflex after so many years of trying to keep Summer in check
> 
>  
> 
> Looks like Qrow isn’t the only Grimm Reaper fan in Team STRQ...I couldn’t resist giving Summer a weapon that also took inspiration from Maria’s. The gravity Dust cores are awesome and I’m kind of sad the show probably won’t utilize them more.


	4. Taiyang—Baking the Rules

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This chapter got trapped in a vortex of "my new commute is 1.5 hours each way and I'm slowly dying" but it's here now! And the next couple weeks are already done, so those will definitely go up on time.
> 
> I don't think I've mentioned my RWBY tumblr on here yet. If you want teasers, jokes, and updates on how chapters are progressing you can check out @fire-the-headcanons

Tai's dad started to laugh about a minute after Summer and Mrs. Rose disappeared around the corner, and he was still chuckling as he unlocked the truck. “I’ll give her one thing, she doesn’t miss an opportunity.”

 _Opportunity._ He wanted to scream with frustration. They’d spent weeks planning this, volunteered for the dance committee, designed the decorations. And all they’d learned was that Azraq wasn’t in Solitas.

At least they hadn’t learned about their route around the school’s security.

“So how’d she convince you to help?”

“She needed me to distract her mom for two minutes, that’s all,” Tai slammed the cab door shut as his father climbed into the driver’s seat. “She just wanted to see if there was anything interesting on professor Azraq’s computer.”

“I wish you wouldn’t encourage her. I’m going to get an earful from Claret tomorrow.”

Tai leaned on the truck, glaring through the window at the trees as they pulled out of the school lot. A few seagull-sized Nevermores glared back from the edge of the forest, too small to hurt anyone but a lost kid.

“Tai?”

He sighed, long and deep. “Yeah?”

“Is that all you’re going to say?”

It took everything he had to not roll his eyes. “I’m sorry you’re going to get an earful.”

“Tai.” His voice was getting stern now. “Come on. You want to go to the dance tomorrow, don’t you? The least you can do is apologize for being an accomplice to breaking and entering.”

“Nobody broke anything, she walked into an open door.” Which was technically true.

“And invaded Azraq’s privacy.”

They’d been through—well, not this _exact_ argument before, but close enough. His dad never let it go, and arguing was no use, which is why Summer had resorted to breaking and entering. Trying to sound genuine, Tai said, “All right, fine. I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have invaded Azraq’s privacy.”

Maybe he’d caved in too quickly, because his dad just sighed again. They rode in silence the rest of the way to the cabin and Tai kept watching the empty woods, looking for some sign of a Grimm larger than a cat.

Patch had to be the most boring place in all of Remnant.

His boots had barely hit gravel when his dad was calling after him again. “Don’t leave yet, I need your help in the garden for a couple hours.”

“Fine.” The word came out a little more aggressive than he’d intended.

“Taiyang…”

No. Screw it. “Well, maybe she wouldn’t do this stuff all the time if you’d tell us anything!” He tried not to shout, he really did.

“It’s not only my decision to make, Tai—”

“Yeah, and Mrs. Rose is even worse. We’re not kids, we’re not idiots, and it’s not fair for you to keep us in the dark all the time!”

“But you _are_ kids. You’re only fifteen, and it’s Claret’s decision what she tells Summer about our work, and I respect that enough not to go behind her back and—”

“Then when can we know?” Tai demanded. “When we’re eighteen? Twenty-one? Graduated from Shade? _When?_ “

His dad only scowled. It was like trying to reason with a brick wall. Always the same arguments, since he and Summer were little. Were they really surprised they decided to take matters into her own hands?

“Taiyang, we all love you both, and we just don’t want you getting dragged into this before you’re ready. There’s worse things out there than Grimm—”

Tai’s fingernails bit into his palms as he struggled with the waves of frustration threatening to sweep him away, speaking very deliberately even as he knew he was getting closer and closer to outright shouting.  “That’s what you keep saying. _That’s_ all _you keep saying. When can we—_ “

“All right, that’s enough!”

“ _Because I know nobody will tell us why if Uncle Azraq doesn’t come home someday, or Mrs. Claret, or YOU, because nobody will tell Summer what the hell happened to HER dad—”_

“Do you really think shouting at me is going to change my mind?!”

“ _WELL, NOTHING ELSE HAS!_ “

Tai’s words faded out, replaced by only the rustle of the wind through the leaves. The world seemed to breathe for a moment as his dad just stared at him with sad, patronizing eyes.

Inside the cabin the radio whined to life, hissing out a message. Whatever they were saying was unclear, but they didn’t sound finished when the furious whine of the Grimm siren cut through their words.

“We’ll talk about this later,” his dad said, reopening the driver’s side door. “Fertilize the blueberry bushes while I’m gone.”

Tai’s mouth fell open. “What?! I’m coming with you!”

“No, you’re not,” his dad snapped, jumping back in the truck. “You’re grounded. Blueberries.” Without another word, he slammed the door shut and backed out to the street. The siren drowned out the retreating engine after only a few moments.

 _To hell with the blueberries._ His dad hadn’t taken his gear yet—Tai retrieved it all from its place next to the door and ready to go in under a minute.

 All the Huntsmen and Huntresses from the island would head to the harbor, including Summer’s mom. This alarm sounded like a big one—Signal would be utterly deserted for at least an hour. They’d probably be grounded until graduation, but they could try again to get something _useful_ from Uncle Azraq’s office.

Mud splattered under his boots, spraying up his pant legs as he tore down the narrow path through the woods. At this pace he’d reach town at the same time as his dad driving all they way around the cliffs in the truck. A small Grimm scurried out of the brush onto the path ahead of him, but he didn’t slow down to identify the type. His foot met momentary resistance against its skull, the teeth and chains strapped over his boot breaking the bone with an audible _crack_. It didn’t get the chance to whine before vaporizing.

A couple more Grimm harassed him before he was out of the woods—his anger and frustration drew them in like moths to a light—but no monster on the island had posed a challenge for years. Ten minutes after leaving home he was banging on Summer’s door, gauntlet rattling against the wood.

It swung open to reveal Summer, wearing her mom’s apron over her favorite white hoodie and beaming down at him through a mask of flour. Her expression was so unexpected he took a few seconds to remember to put his arm down.

“Change of plans,” she announced. “We’re going to Beacon.”

His heart leapt, still pounding hard from his frantic run, and the corners of his mouth started to creep up to match hers. They’d been planning on Shade for a few years now. “You found something.”

“Yep.” She’d never looked so smug. “Come in, I’ll show you.”

“Uh, cookies going okay?” Tai asked, brushing some flour off her shoulder onto the porch as she leaned out to close the door.

“Just added the flour to the mixer too fast. Multitasking. Come on!” she demanded, dragging him toward the back of the house. Tai stumbled forward, retracting the teeth on his boot covers before they could ruin Mrs. Rose’s floors. Again.

“Balt caught me almost immediately,” she said, plopping down in front of her mom’s computer. Tai headed over to where she’d abandoned her work and continued scooping out cookie dough onto the tray while she explained. “But he let something slip. Whatever they’re all doing, Professor Ozpin is involved. Azraq’s on a mission for him right now.”

“...Ozpin?” Tai stared at her. “So, what, it’s government work? _That’s_ why they can’t talk about it?” This was terrible news, they wouldn’t be able to get government work until they graduated and got their licenses. And probably held them for a few years.

“Ozpin may be on the Vale council, but if it were just classified stuff, why wouldn’t they tell us that?” Summer countered, her eyes glittering more than usual. “They’re _hiding_ something. And now we know where to start looking to find out what it is.”

Tai clicked the lever of the ice cream scoop a few times, thinking. For years he’d been desperate to get out of of Patch, out of Vale, smallest and _boring_ est of the four Kingdoms. Vacuo and Shade had seemed like a perfect way to get out in the world and do something worthwhile. But, if there really was worse than Grimm out there, and Professor Ozpin knew about it... “So. Beacon.”

“I-is that okay?” she stammered. “I know we all planned—”

“No, I’m in. It’s a good school, and this is a good reason to stay in Vale.”

“Hopefully we can talk Dan and Zaff into it,” she said, clearing the browser history and  grabbing the scoop from Tai’s hands before attacking the bowl of dough like it was the only thing standing between them and the truth. “Mom’ll be happy I’ve changed my mind, at least until Uncle Balt tells her why.”

“Yeah, Dad didn’t really like the idea of Vacuo either.”

“You should get home. We’re in plenty of trouble already.”

She had a point. If he left now he might get enough of the work done to hide his absence. “Okay. I’ll see you at school.”

It was nothing strange for a Huntsman to die on a mission. A tragedy, but not an unusual one, and _someone_ had to fight the Grimm or life on Remnant would cease to exist. When Summer’s dad didn’t come home, everyone was heartbroken, but not surprised. At least until his teammates all packed up and moved to Patch as soon as he was buried, leaving most of their belongings behind.

Tai glanced over his shoulder as he stepped from the kitchen, over to where she was putting the tray in the oven with a scowl.  Had her mom ever noticed it? That anger that seemed to bubble to the surface in her when she thought no one was looking?

 _There’s worse out there than Grimm._ The only explanation they’d ever gotten ran through his mind again and again as he ran back along the path, kicking at Grimm and using trees to navigate the hills and cliffs quickly.

What could possibly be _worse_ than soulless incarnations of hunger, hatred and death?

 


	5. Qrow—Desperate Times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I....forgot to post it here. Sorry! It's still Friday for a couple more hours, right?  
> TW: abuse, suicidal thoughts. TLDR at the end if you want to skip the details.

Pain and thirst dragged Qrow awake. How long had it been? Light streamed in through the gap in the door, but that didn't mean anything—he could have been out for a night or a week. He was surprised to be waking up at all. Why hadn't Vanta killed him yet?

Raven had left water. He reached for it without thinking and almost screamed at the sudden agony in his right shoulder. As stiff and sore as his left arm was, at least it would move, and he managed to get the skin uncorked. The lukewarm liquid was heavenly, even if it also kind of spilled everywhere.

Finally he could think, although that wasn't necessarily a good thing. He let the empty waterskin fall to the side. Bones was dead. Vanta had declared him a traitor—he should be dead too. He hadn't survived, not in any way that mattered. Was he even really part of the tribe anymore? Was Raven, for breaking tradition to help him?

He couldn't understand. The smart thing would have been to leave him behind, get rid of his curse for good. Vanta had always liked her, she would have been second-in-command. Raven  _ should _ have left him—now they were both marked for death. Even if the two of them killed Vanta first, the rest of the tribe would never forgive him for what happened to Bones.

Then there were the Huntsmen. No one else could hold their own against them, it was why Bones' leadership had been unquestioned by anyone who was sober. Without him the tribe was vulnerable, and without Vanta either they'd all be rounded up and executed within a year.

Qrow squeezed his eyes shut and forced his thoughts onto a different track. He didn't want to think about this anymore, wanted to lose himself in his fantasy of running away and going to Haven. As if the tribe wouldn't hunt him down for desertion. As if the Huntsmen would ignore the Branwen brand on his wrist, the mark he'd earned with his first murder.

The tent grew lighter as someone entered, jolting him out of his daydream, and he forced his head toward the opening. Another jolt of pain shot through his neck and shoulder, but he was desperate to ask his sister what had happened.

It wasn't Raven.

"Did you sleep well?" Vanta asked, letting the tent flap fall closed behind her.

It felt like the moon was bearing down on him, crushing the air from his lungs and filling his head with a soundless buzzing that blocked out the rest of the world. He'd have given anything to be able to get up and run but all he could do was squeeze his eyes shut again and wish for her to disappear.

"Don't try to move, you'll reopen your wounds."

_ What? _

He stared in disbelief as she sat carefully on Raven's bedding next to him, balancing the beat-up wooden bowl in her hands to avoid spilling.

"You've been sleeping for nearly two days. Worried your sister sick, but I knew you'd make it back." She pressed the spoon to his lips, letting the broth trickle into his mouth. He wasn't hungry, but he couldn't exactly feed himself later when he would be. "You need to eat something."

He swallowed painfully. "Where's Raven?"

"Hunting," Vanta said, giving him another spoonful. "She needed a break, and you weren't the only one hurt in the raid. We're a little short on manpower."

Why? Why wasn't she screaming, threatening—why hadn't she killed him?

"How bad are your injuries?"

"I'll be fine," he lied automatically. He couldn't move his right arm except for the fingers.

"Raven said your aura's acting normally. You should be on your feet in a couple weeks." They stayed silent for a few minutes, until the broth was gone and the pain slightly fuzzier. 

Finally, Vanta broke the silence. "Qrow, We need to talk about your Semblance."

His stomach clenched. There it was.

"I don't think you understand how hard Bones and I have worked to protect you. If you don't get a handle on it soon this  _ will _ happen again. I can't stop it, not without him."

He didn't think she'd stop it regardless, but she was right. They'd always hated him, Bones was the only thing that had ever prevented this.

The spoon rattled as she set the bowl on the packed floor. "He was your father, you know." It was like a slap in the face, a physical sensation. Obviously they'd always suspected one of them was their parent. They had the same dark hair, red eyes, pale skin—but they'd never known which one. "He didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you and Raven to become too dependent on him. He just wanted you both to be strong enough to survive. …I think he still would, even though you killed him."

He turned away from her, as much as he could, wanting to hide the tears he couldn't hold back. "I'm s-sorry." He couldn't even keep his voice steady. He  _ was  _ weak, he  _ didn't  _ belong. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to hurt him. I can't control it—"

"Qrow." He flinched at the bite in her tone. " _ 'Sorry' _ doesn't change anything. And there's no such thing as a Semblance you can't control. The only reason you can't stop is that you  _ believe _ you can't. You just need to apply yourself. Raven and I can't protect you forever—you need to find a place in the tribe. Make yourself too valuable to throw away."

She reached out to run her hand through his hair and he flinched before he could stop himself. If she noticed she pretended not to. "Without Bones we're vulnerable. Your Semblance could be our greatest weapon."

"Okay." A complete lie. He'd spent more than half his life trying to shut off his Semblance, make it stop hurting everyone around him. It just  _ wasn't possible _ , but Vanta would never accept that answer, so he postponed the day of reckoning.

"Get some rest. Just make sure you keep thinking about it, all right?"  She bent down and kissed the top of his head before taking the bowl and finally leaving. 

Qrow fought to keep control, it wouldn't help his miserable standing in the tribe if someone heard him wailing like an infant. 

He didn't want to kill Huntsmen, he wanted to  _ be  _ one. 

Painfully, he reached for his pack, for the little plastic bag tucked safely in a side pocket that kept his library safe from the elements. The tribe moved around enough that it was hard to carry too much, but comic books were lightweight enough that he could afford to hold on to his favorites.

It was even harder to get the bag open with one hand than the waterskin, but eventually he managed to withdraw the book he'd been looking for. A masked Huntress glared back at him from the cover, twin scythes extended—the Grimm Reaper. 

He'd only ever found two from this series, and they weren't even from the same story arc, but that didn't matter. She was  _ awesome. _ Her costume, fighting style, the way she wore a mask and never revealed her identity—everything about her screamed  _ bandit _ , but she only ever saved people and killed Grimm. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

It slipped from his hand as a twinge of pain shot through his arm, and he retrieved it carefully to avoid folding the paper. It had fallen open to the last page, where the kingdom always printed a recruitment ad. They were so ubiquitous that he never even bothered to look at them anymore, but this one was different and he'd never noticed. The lamp of Mistral was absent—an emblem of two axes and a branch in its place.

_ Follow the Beacon,  _ the ad proclaimed over the image of a huge castle. A group of four Huntsmen and Huntresses stood in the foreground, smiling and laughing with their weapons sheathed or leaning on the ground. The girl in the middle had some kind of tail.  _ Learn to fight like a Huntsman! _

_ Proudly accepting students of all kingdoms and backgrounds. _

He stared at the image, terrified of the hopeful feeling fighting its way up through his chest.  _ Learn to fight like a Huntsman. _ Bones wasn't magic, he was an absolute master of combat—his Semblance was nothing more than a grisly shortcut.

Qrow could never escape. Raven believed in Vanta, in the tribe, and no matter how far he ran she would be right behind him with her Semblance and a dozen reinforcements ready to kill him again. But if he could convince Vanta to  _ help _ , convince her it was all for the tribe's benefit…

She had contacts in Mistral that could get him a respectable identity. Once he had that, and a Huntsman's license, he wouldn't need the tribe anymore. He never had to come back here. And he'd have four years—four years without Vanta's influence—to convince Raven to let him go. Or even to leave with him.

His arm was getting tired from holding the book up and he set it to the side, staring at the canopy instead as he thought it out. Their brands were a different problem, easily recognized in Anima or Vacuo, but most people from Atlas or even Vale wouldn't be looking for them hidden under armor or jewelry.

He and Raven could probably pass any combat test they were set. Most mercenaries had graduated from one of the junior combat schools, and they rarely posed a threat. As for book studies, the recruitment stations handed out free resources—it was at least a place to start.

The more he thought about it the more it seemed like their only way out.

He just had to convince Raven and Vanta.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have a Vanta in your life, stop reading this and go read Why Does He Do That by Lundy Bancroft
> 
> TLDR: Qrow regains consciousness and thinks over the bad position he's in—and Raven as well, because she stuck her neck out for him. Vanta shows up and reveals that Bones was the twins' biological father, and warns Qrow that she can't protect him from the tribe if he doesn't learn to control his Semblance. She suggests he find a way to make himself invaluable. Qrow comes up with the plan that he and Raven attend a Huntsman Academy under the pretense of learning to defend the tribe, but has no intention of returning after graduation. He hopes that he can convince Raven to let him go or even leave the tribe with him during their time at school, when Vanta won't be around watching them.


	6. Raven—Desperate Measures

Qrow started to sag, grunting with pain as he slid off her shoulder toward the ground, and Raven lowered him back to his hands and knees. He was healing, but slowly, and she still had to help him with simple things. Luckily—and undoubtedly due to the fact that his Semblance had no aura to misuse—no one had tried to kill him again.

"I just need a minute," he panted, shivering.

"It's fine." Aura healing was a double-edged sword—it required a ludicrous amount of energy, and when the injuries were as severe as his it took even more of a toll.

Vanta hadn't said a word to her since the morning after the raid. Finding Qrow breathing and bandaged had done nothing to improve her hangover or her bad temper. Since then they had stayed in their tent as much as possible, avoiding her and the rest of the tribe whenever they could, but they also couldn't afford to skip out on work around camp. They were resented enough as it was. Raven had been hunting almost every day, and as soon as Qrow's arms were well enough to hold a needle and thread they'd found a mountain of mending to him to do.

It still wasn't enough. They'd never been popular before, but Bones had made sure they were at least tolerated.

"Okay, I'm ready to try again," he groaned, reaching up with his good arm, but she slowly sank to his level instead.

There was no way around it. "We have to kill Vanta," she breathed, too quiet to overhear even if someone had their ear against the tent.

Qrow stared at her like she'd just suggested teaching a Beowolf to fetch.

"Not  _ now _ , when you're well again. But she's too dangerous for us to keep going like this."

"Raven, the tribe would never follow us."

"They don't have to follow us. We'll make them fear us." She'd been thinking about it nonstop for the past weeks—fear of Qrow's Semblance was the only way they could maintain control, even if it was dangerous. Though, if she was being honest, it wasn't the risk she was afraid of. He wasn't magic, couldn't pull catastrophe out of thin air. She had a lifetime of experience predicting what would go wrong.

Once Qrow realized he could control the tribe on his own, he might decide he didn't need her any more.

"…What if we took over for Bones?"

She almost laughed. He sounded frightened just suggesting it—the idea was laughable at best. "You really think we have the skill to fight fully-trained Huntsmen?" Vanta had been training with Sanguin and Brandi since  _ it _ happened, getting ready for the battles to come. Any of the three of them could easily best Qrow or Raven separately. "We have nothing to offer but support."

It took a Qrow a second to answer. "Not yet. But we could." He leaned away and fumbled with his pack, pulling out a very rumpled book with more than a few pages missing.

"Kindling?" Raven asked, holding the front cover with two fingers and letting the rest of it dangle. "Or toilet paper, maybe."

"I can't exactly get out of camp to find a new one," he muttered. Raven finally looked down at the cover.  _ Application Guide _ was printed above the symbols of the four Kingdoms.

"No. No way. Aren't you forgetting something?" she tossed the book back at him and tapped her wrist on the spot where her vambrace covered the brand. "We'd be found out easily."

"Only at Haven," Qrow said quickly. Raven couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Maybe Vacuo, I think they have tribes too. If we went to one of the other two—"

"Are you crazy?" Bones had taken them to see an execution, once. Not in Mistral—no, the great Kingdom was too  _ civilized _ for that these days—in one of the southern cities where the capital's control was near nonexistent. She'd been small enough to sit on his shoulders and watch above the crowd as they shot their tribemates one by one and cheered.

_ This is what happens if you surrender, _ he'd whispered as he put her down, lifting Qrow up to watch the rest.

"We'd be able to learn how they think, what their weaknesses are, how to fight them. Bones could match them because he knew their tactics. We've got plenty of time to scout it out and forge our papers. And no one in the tribe would dare mess with us if we could fight like that."

Raven paused, a retort halfway to her mouth.

_ She _ could lead the tribe if she could fight like that. Bones couldn't summon portals or cause disasters. All he had was skill and experience. Even Vanta would fall in line behind a bandit Huntress— _ if _ they survived the Academy.

"I don't know what else to do," Qrow said, staring down at the cover of the recruitment book.

Raven let her breath hiss through her teeth. This was a bad idea. "…I'm willing to hear more."

He glanced up, meeting her eye for less than a second before flipping through the book again. "W-well, this thing has a couple pages on the different schools. And it says that anyone from any Kingdom can go to any Academy, and a lot of people from Anima end up going to Atlas and Beacon anyway because Haven doesn't have enough room. We'd blend in, and who'd look for bandit brands at an Academy?"

"We've never been to school."

"We don't have to. They just want people who are trained to use their auras, especially if they can fight. They'll happily recruit anyone, you know that." He spoke more confidently now. "I think Vale is our best bet—Atlas has tighter security, they're more likely to spot forged papers, but Vale's tiny and desperate for recruits. And—" he flipped to a dog-eared page, "—they just got a new headmaster last year, the youngest in history. We can use his inexperience to our advantage."

Raven almost hated to entertain the idea, but it was…compelling. "He wouldn't be the only teacher, though."

"No, but if anything went wrong we could portal to Vanta in the blink of an eye and they'd have no way to track us."

"What about an ambush?"

"They'd have to break your aura with one shot. It's more of a risk for me, isn't it? I can't get away on my own."

"It's not hard to grab you quickly if the need arises," Raven muttered. Was she actually considering this?

When Qrow spoke again it was even quieter than before. "If anyone can teach me to control my Semblance, it'll be them."

That was too compelling to ignore. You could only roll the dice so many times before turning up snake eyes—and if his luck had killed before, it would again, and she could be next.

Raven made her decision. "I'll help you convince Vanta."


	7. Qrow—For the Tribe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [TW for PTSD and abuse]

"…and if we leave when you move the camp, we couldn't give away your position even if we wanted to," Qrow said evenly, though his heartbeat nearly drowned out the words. Vanta had sat stony-faced through their entire plan, watching like a Nevermore in a tree.

"But that's just a precaution," Raven added quickly. "You know how fast I can be with my portals. If anyone suspects, we'll take what we've learned and vanish."

They held their breath—

—and Vanta's icy expression finally thawed. "I'm so proud of you." She each of them by the shoulders, and Qrow's legs went wobbly with relief. "Your father would be proud, too." It hurt, a twist in the gut, the same as every other time she brought it up. He shoved at the thought, but it stuck to his mind like lumpy porridge on a spoon. 

_ Bones may have been kind but he was still a murderer. Anyone outside the tribe would be thanking me _ — _ but does that make it right to kill him? And I didn't even mean to, I _ —

He bit down on his tongue and forced himself to listen to Vanta. "…to Mistral and speak to Fallow. He can get you the papers you'll need, and safe passage to Sanus when the time comes.  When do you intend to leave?"

"For Mistral, as soon as possible. If we have to head straight to Sanus from there, I'll let you know."

"Then we'll stay in this valley and wait for your word." Vanta nodded. "I'd hate to move twice. Get some rest," she said warmly, squeezing their shoulders before finally letting go. "You have a long journey ahead of you."

"Thank you," Raven replied, and Qrow followed suit, still keeping his gaze down.

He was halfway to the door when Vanta spoke. "Oh, Qrow, a word."

He froze with a panicked glance at Raven, who paused for only a moment before disappearing outside.

"I have no doubt in your sister's capabilities, but I want to make sure one thing is clear," Vanta murmured, stepping right up next to him and speaking too quietly to be overheard. "Don't come back without her."

He didn't intend to come back at all. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good boy," she murmured, taking his other shoulder this time, the one they had cut. He couldn't quite stop a whimper from worming its way from his throat as pain shot down from his neck to his fingertips despite her light touch.

It had taken him months for his aura to fully recharge after that day, signaling that he was done healing, but he still got stiff and sore for no reason. Some days he could barely conceal it, and Vanta had noticed. It was good they were leaving.

She smiled wolfishly, knowing she'd broken him, and let go. "Safe travels."

"Yes, ma'am."

He waited until he was outside to rub at his shoulder, scowling at the ridges and bumps he could feel even through his shirt. Scars had never bothered him before, but then, enduring a tough fight was something to be proud of. This was something he wanted desperately to forget.

"What did she want?" Raven hissed.

"It's nothing," he muttered, letting his hand drop. "Are we still leaving tomorrow?"

"Unless she stops us."

"I don't think she will," he muttered. "My aura's back. Things will start going wrong again any minute. She wants me gone."

"She wants you to  _ control  _ it," Raven snapped, stepping over a puddle.

_ Maybe it's already going wrong. _ It had rained nonstop for three days—not far from plausible for mid-spring, but Qrow couldn't help feel like his curse was celebrating its return.

"I'm going to pack," he muttered, turning toward their tent.

"There won't be any food left."

"It won't take long." He needed a moment, just a few minutes to himself, and he was relieved when she shrugged and continued on without him.

Three months. Three months since Bones' death, and things had only gotten worse. The tribe had always hated him, but now it was more than that. They were scared. So was he, to be honest.

Assuming they got in, should he even tell the school about his Semblance? On the one hand, there was a chance they could teach him to control it. On the other…maybe they couldn't. And then he'd be right back to being blamed for everything, until they ran him out too.

_ Qrow. _ He wondered vaguely if he'd had a name before that. Probably not, most of the kids under five were just called "hey, you" or "runt"—no point in naming them if they wouldn't be strong enough to unlock their Semblances anyway. Still, sometimes it was nice to pretend he could have been someone else.

He'd barely touched the tent flap when he felt something was wrong, his hand flying to the hilt of his sword before his mind could catch up with his instincts. ...It was far too bright inside, and the wrong color for lamplight. Dragging the tent flap open further, the back of his throat tightened painfully.

The tarp had been slashed open right over each of their bedrolls, and the rest of their belongings had been tossed from their packs into the mud. Everything was soaked, the water reflecting the weak evening light that made it in through the massive holes in the roof. They had no dry clothes or blankets, and the tarp would take several hours to repair. Or longer—there were only a few minutes of daylight left.

"Ooh, bad luck, Qrow."

His hand tightened on his sword as he whirled toward the voice, but Sanguin was a good five paces back and leaning against the logs of the camp wall, twirling a knife between his fingers. Qrow's stomach plummeted—he wasn't even trying to hide that he'd done it. No one would stand with them and he knew it.

"Well." Sanguin brought the knife to a halt, holding it steady. "Best of luck on your big mission." Without warning, his arm blurred and Qrow didn't have time to react before it hit him between the eyes, blinding him with his own aura. He staggered back, and then fell into the mud as Sanguin tackled him to the ground.

"Just don't forget what happens to traitors and deserters," he breathed, kneeling painfully on Qrow's stomach. His vision finally cleared just as Sanguin pressed a second knife to his bad shoulder. A fresh shock of pain ran down from his neck to his fingertips, even though his aura stopped the blade a couple inches away from his skin. "If you were too delirious the first time, I'd be happy to teach you again." 

Qrow pooled his aura in his arms, augmenting his strength and shoving the larger man back. He slid easily back to a crouch rather than falling in the mud. Winded, Qrow struggled to get the words out. "We're doing this for the tribe." 

"And don't forget it," Sanguin snarled, sheathing his knives and stalking off into the gloom.

_ Wonder if Vanta sent him.  _ He rubbed his shoulder as he forced himself into a sitting position—the shooting pain had left a dull numbness behind it, and his arm tingled unpleasantly as he tried to move.  _ Probably not, he'd do it on his own just for fun. _

His throat tightened further as he knelt, prodding at a soggy wad of dull paper. He couldn't even tell which of his comics it had been—they were all printed on cheap paper, with poor ink. 

_ My reaction time's gotten slower. I need to practice on the way to Mistral. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience! The commute is still terrible. 
> 
> Once again, there's more information when I'm going to miss a week on Tumblr @fire-the-headcanons
> 
> [Summary: Qrow and Raven tell Vanta their plan and she agrees readily. However, after Raven is out of earshot Vanta tells Qrow not to come home if anything happens to his sister. Qrow goes to their tent to pack and the place has been trashed.  
> In the tribe, kids aren't named until the age of five when they unlock their Semblances.  
> A man named Sanguin threatens him and Qrow realizes his reflexes have slowed during his months of recovery. He vows to practice on the way to Mistral.]


	8. Taiyang—A Difficult P-OZ-zle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm...this may undergo another round of editing before I'm really done with it.

There were no _official_ biographies of Professor Ozpin. 

 _Maybe that's part of the problem_ , Tai thought, staring at the piles of printouts and clippings scattered across Summer's bedroom floor. Reputable sources called him enigmatic. The tabloids called him an impostor, to which he only ever replied, "I would rather prove my worth as an educator than prove my association with my mentor."

The tabloids had a point. The old King of Vale had been bedridden for the last ten years of his life, and died when Ozpin was only fourteen. There were plenty of questions about how much mentoring the young professor had gotten from the Kingdom's legendary hero, but that hadn't stopped Ozpin from being appointed the youngest ever headmaster of a Huntsman Academy.

That had been about two years ago. Nobody could _really_ say what he'd been doing before that, other than a few sketchy accounts of a young Huntsman operating independently in northern Vacuo. 

"It doesn't make sense," Summer muttered. "We're from Anima, our parents went to Haven. We moved here a long time before Ozpin's appointment to Beacon."

"They must have been working for the King of Vale," Zaff said. "And now they're working for Oz instead. If he really is the old King's protege, he'll have taken over...whatever it is."

"But again, what could it _be?_ " Tai muttered, flipping through some newspaper clippings without really looking at them. "He wasn't a king anymore, and most people agree his mind was going by the time we moved here."

After months of getting nowhere, Summer and Tai had hoped showing their findings to their teammates would help them sort out this puzzle. It was beginning to look like a fresh pair of eyes wasn't the solution, and Dan hadn't even showed up yet.

"Maybe your parents are spies. For Vale."

Tai lay back with a groan and spread out on the floor. "Not you too."

"But—"

"The old King of Vale literally set up the current world governments!" Tai hissed. "Why would he give up the throne and then immediately start spying on the kingdoms he just organized?"

Zaff shrugged. "To make sure they were doing the right things?"

"Let's face it, all Ozpin's done since he became headmaster is complain about the expansion of Vale," Tai said, sitting up again so he could jab in frustration at the largest pile of articles. "When Dad says there are worse things out there than Grimm, I don't think he's talking about real estate developers! Ozpin was twenty-one, and probably in Vacuo when we moved here. He didn't have anything to do with your dad—they probably never even met." He folded his legs, resting his elbows on his knees as he surveyed the mess. "He's just a weird guy, and Uncle Azraq works for him because he _literally works for him_. The combat school headmasters are chosen by the heads of the Huntsman Academies, remember?"

"Well then, what about Professor Veridian?" Zaff asked. "The man who took over Beacon the first time the old king fell ill?"

"He never left Vale his entire life," Summer replied, twisting the strings of her hoodie in her hands. "That's why he got picked."

"And possibly the most boring Huntsman who's ever lived," Tai added. "You know he works in Stand now? Does migration tracking."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Summer stuck her tongue out at him.

"Sitting in a bullhead and watching Beowolves run around all day from a safe distance is not what I had in mind when I signed up for combat school."

"Maybe you need to approach the problem from a different angle," Zaff said, grinning mischievously. "Have you asked your _grandparents_ for information?"

Tai sighed. "Of course. Just because yours give you whatever you want doesn't mean ours do."

"I think Mom threatened not to talk to Granny anymore if she told me anything useful," Summer complained. "And she says Dad never knew his family, but I think she's lying. I found an old photo of him with someone who sure _looks_ like his mom. She's got our eyes anyway."

" _Maybe_ ," Tai said. "It's in black-and-white. Her eyes look kind of sparkly but it could just be the light."

Zaff swallowed. "Um, Summer….you don't think your dad came from a crime family, do you?" There was a faint _whap_ as the nearest comic to hand bounced off his face. "Hey, you wanted a second opinion!"

"Not a bad one," Tai grumbled. "I just hope we can learn something better at Beacon next year—"

The doorknob rattled, and the three of them sprang into action, shoving the piles of paper under the bed and dresser.

"Summer, what have I told you about closing the door when you have boys over?" Mrs. Rose complained, pushing her way into the room. Tai stared pointedly at his scroll, ears burning. Zaff had buried his face in the comic book Summer had just thrown at him, and looked like he was trying not to laugh as their teammate spluttered with embarrassment.

"M-mom!"

"Dan is here," Mrs. Rose said, stepping aside to let him past. "Make sure you're all not up too late, we've got a big day tomorrow. Door _open._ " She rapped on it with her knuckles as she finally left.

"She knows we're going to be sharing a dorm room at Beacon, right?" Dan asked, flopping down in Zaff's lap. He barely managed to get Summer's comic out of the way in time. "I don't think they typically assign everyone chaperones."

"The _team leader_ is supposed to be the chaperone," Summer countered.

"Hmm. I'm really bad at that." He turned and pecked Zaff on the cheek. "How's the scheming going?"

Zaff grinned. "Sterling was in the mafia."

"Next time, I'm gonna throw a textbook."

"Come on, don't fight." Tai grinned. "We may not have answers, but at least tomorrow we'll get a little payback. Is everything ready?"

"I think we've managed to convince the last few holdouts," Summer chirped. "Just make sure you're ready. You've got the most important part."


	9. Summer—Lost Your Marbles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is barely edited but I didn't want to leave you on a cliffhanger for a week, so expect some changes...eventually. The Branwen storyline is easier, I've been working on it longer. 
> 
> Fun fact: my aunt's high school class actually did this. She was probably the ringleader but I have no proof and I bet the faculty didn't either.

Sweat ran down Summer's back under her dress, and for the millionth time she wished the ceremony could have been inside. Or on the beach, why wasn't that ever an option? They'd be less likely to be interrupted by Grimm too, not that it was a common occurrence. There weren't a lot of negative emotions floating around at a graduation ceremony. 

Though, that hadn't stopped a couple of young Beowolves from investigating the large group of humans sitting out on Signal's front lawn three years ago. They'd made it six steps out of the forest before being vaporized into a fine black mist by about four pounds of ammunition from the assembled graduates, teachers, and guests.

She wrenched her attention back to the present, where Uncle Azraq was finishing his speech to the sea of black uniforms that made up the younger students' section of the lawn.

"...hard work and determination. Please show our graduates your appreciation as their names are called. Lisera Ameth!" He paused as a girl in the first row stood up, waving at the parents and younger students, who were all clapping enthusiastically. The sun glinted off Azraq's armor as he shook her hand, reflecting into his confused face. She just gave the teachers a dazzling smile and accepted her diploma, leaving the headmaster to stare confusedly at the little purple marble she'd left in his palm.

Summer tried and failed to stifle a grin. 

Azraq tucked it in his pocket with a shrug and called the next name. Another handshake and another marble followed, this one as green as the robes of the aspiring Huntsman that gave it to him.

_ Rose _ was pretty far down on the alphabetic list, so by the time it was Summer's turn to take the stage Azraq's pockets were full and Balt had been desperately waved over to help. He, unlike his husband, was thoroughly enjoying the prank and struggling to laugh silently as the headmaster shoveled them into his arms.

"Did you have something to do with this?" Azraq asked, accepting Summer's black-and-white marble.

"Maybe." She grinned back, standing on tiptoes to give him a hug.

Finally they reached the last student. Taiyang Xiao-Long made his way to the stage, buoyed up by applause and laughter, and carrying a large glass jar with a single golden marble rattling around the bottom.

"I guess we should have given you this first," Tai grinned, holding it out.  _ Class of 56 _ was neatly frosted on the side. He turned to the younger students. "Keep that in mind next year, okay?" Most of them—particularly those who would be graduating next—cheered. 

"Just something to remember us by!" Zaff shouted from the assembled graduates.

Azraq gave them all a wide smile and a long-suffering sigh. "Congratulations, class of 56. We salute your dedication and pray for your success."

As one, the teachers raised their weapons and fired into the air. With slightly less coordination—and a lot more cheering—the students followed suit.

They'd learned everything they could from Signal. One step closer.

The groups broke rank and mixed together as everyone rushed to find their families. Summer was a head shorter than everyone else, but Uncle Azraq made an easy target—it didn't take long for her to wriggle her way out of the crowd and up to the stage, where he and Balt were emptying their pockets into the jar.

"This is actually a very sweet idea," Azraq said, rolling Summer and Tai's marbles in his palm. "Though the presentation could use some work."

Behind him, Balt shook his head with a broad grin and a double thumbs up.

"Maybe you should bring a basket next year. Just in case," Tai said, vaulting onto the platform and ignoring the steps. Their parents followed suit right behind him.

"Oh, honey, I'm so proud of you," her mom swept her off her feet in a tight hug before she could so much as collapse her spear, and it fell to the stage with a clatter.

It was also kind of hard to hug back with her arms pinned to her sides. "Come on, mom, it's not that big a deal. The Academy will be way harder, right?"

"It will," she admitted, and Summer's boots returned to the ground. "But don't discredit what you've accomplished here. Plenty of people don't make it this far, and you've worked so hard." Her face fell, ever so slightly, a shadow creeping under her smile. "...Your dad would be so proud."

She couldn't help but really wonder if that was true. It was being a Huntsman that had gotten him killed, wasn't it? Would he want her to do this? With her mother's protectiveness, Summer didn't even understand why  _ she  _ supported her dream of becoming a Huntress. "Can...Can we visit him this summer? Please? We haven't gone back since the funeral."

Her mom hesitated, the shadows behind her pained smile deepening. "Oh, sweetie…."

"It's just not safe," Azraq said quickly. 

"Still?"

He nodded. "He wouldn't want you to put yourself in harm's way just to see him."

"I...I know, just…" Her eyes stung. Why couldn't they have buried him here, in Vale? 

And _ why  _ wasn't it safe?

...Today wasn't the day for the old argument.

"We planned a beach picnic, to celebrate," her mom said. "Why don't we build a bonfire and send him letters?" It was their tradition—writing down what they couldn't say to him, and burning the words so they'd reach the afterlife. The sparks almost looked like the silvery petals of his Semblance. 

Her mom put her arm around her, startling Summer back to the present. "I love you."

Summer wrapped both arms around her mother, burying her face in her shoulder. "I love you too."

A second passed, and Summer moved to let go, but her mother didn't. Surprised, she tightened her grip again and waited.

"Promise me you'll come home." Her voice broke under the strain of holding back tears.

It was a miracle Summer had ever been allowed to hold a spear. She squeezed her mom tight. "I promise."

She finally let go, wiping at her eyes. "And promise you won't bother Professor Ozpin too much."

"...Mom?"

"Oh, I know about your investigation," she said, waving. "I'm your mom. I know everything."

Summer reached out and caught her arm, holding on tight. She missed him, they both did, but she hadn't gotten this emotional about it in years. "Are...are you okay?"

Mer mom smiled, tears still running down her face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry we've had to keep so much from you. I promise, everything we've done has...has been to keep you and Tai safe. And…" she trailed off, breathing deeply. "...and things are going to start becoming clearer soon. Just, just promise me you'll keep working hard, and, and you'll come home."

Summer pulled her back in for another hug, holding as tightly as she could. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't make promises you can't keep...


	10. Qrow—The Birds' First Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anima has zero (0) skyscrapers

Qrow had been to Mistral twice—ignoring their most recent trip to get the forged passports now tucked safely in their pockets.  Both times, the tribe's small party bought and sold whatever they needed to and left as quickly as possible. They never left the very bottom levels of the city, where the police didn't dare set foot and the Huntsmen knew they couldn't make a dent. 

Vale was so much worse. Everyone here was stuck on a single layer, existing side-by-side, hidden not by sheer cliffs but by its citizens' apparently limitless ability to ignore one another.

Further down the sidewalk, a man slept with his back against a newspaper kiosk. Another man in an expensive suit—who Qrow would have crossed the street to avoid if they'd somehow met in Mistral—walked right past the sleeping man as if he wasn't there.

He supposed that was why Mistral was famous for its black market and Vale was not, though he wondered if Vale's upper and lower crusts ever clashed, being forced onto the same ground.

"How do you think they stay up?"

He glanced over at Raven, who was sneaking glances at the massive skyscrapers when she thought nobody was looking. "They use metal instead of wood. For the beams." He'd seen it in comic books.

Her gaze lingered on the mountain of glass beside them for a moment, and then she turned her eyes back to the street and continued forward. "Come on. The airfield is this way."

Yet another difference from Mistral—instead of sitting proudly in the center of the city, Beacon was placed directly between the Kingdom and the wilds. And the only way to get there was by airship.

"What do you think flying will be like?"

"Slightly less boring than the boat ride." Raven didn't look back, her eyes skimmed the street ahead, watched the reflections of the people walking behind them in the store windows. He thought it was a little silly—they were obviously well-armed—and they hardly looked worth robbing. Playing into the poor hands-for-hire role, they had left what little Dust-armored clothing they had with the tribe. Once they were accepted, the school would give them an allowance to buy proper combat gear. 

If they got accepted.

Qrow brought that train of thought to a screeching halt and switched tracks. They were passing a large hotel now, and a nice one at that, all marble and glass. "Where should we stay tonight?"

"There's a forest north of the city, fairly sheltered. Nothing bigger than Ursa."

It was too bad they couldn't apply a little closer to the beginning of the school year—they could have stayed in Anima bit longer, where the dangers were familiar and no one would question why two Beacon applicants were sleeping rough.

"Looks like rain," he muttered, glancing up. "Maybe we should get a shelter built today and—"

"I want to get this over with," she snapped, and he bristled but kept quiet.

_ You're scared of all the wrong things. We're way more likely to fail the written test and get sent home than we are to be discovered and killed. _

The buildings gradually fell in height as they put more distance between them and the city center. Closer to the airfield, all of the buildings were low and squat, either hangars or warehouses. Somehow it felt even more different from Mistral than the skyscrapers had, without  _ anything _ towering over them but the distant mountains that ringed the kingdom.

The airfield gate was wide open, yet another one-story building just inside with a neon sign in the window that read BEACON FERRY. Someone was already waiting inside, a girl their age with fins for ears and a nasty-looking barbed pitchfork lying flat on her lap.

The door pinged as Raven pulled it open. "Good afternoon!" the desk clerk said, so cheerfully Qrow almost looked over his shoulder to see if he was talking to someone else. "Are you headed up to the school for the test as well?"

He waited for Raven to answer, but she didn't move other than the slightest twitch of her hand. With what he hoped was a polite smile, he stepped forward. "Is this where we buy a ferry ticket?"

The clerk smiled, a little more condescendingly. "You from Atlas or Mistral?"

Qrow blinked. "Uh…Mistral."

"There's no charge for the ferry. I'm just here to answer questions and work out schedules. Speaking of which, the next one leaves in ten minutes. Please let me know if there's anything I can help you with."

"Thank you," Raven said stiffly, dropping into the nearest chair, which conveniently was also the furthest chair from the little building's other occupants. Qrow slouched into the chair next to her and pulled out his notes, worried that if he gave himself time to think he'd start panicking.

Raven, on the other hand, pulled out a whetstone and started sharpening her knife. The sound grated on him, made it difficult to concentrate, but it was probably the only thing keeping her from running out of the building and never looking back so he just did his best to ignore it.

Finally, the bullhead arrived. Vale's ships were small, noisy, and fast compared to the ones in Anima. The window glass rattled in its frame as it swooped down to the landing pad next to their building.

"Good luck on your tests!" The clerk said, waving briefly before returning to his computer. Raven nodded to him before silently tucking away her knife and heading out. Qrow followed, hurrying to keep up.

"Stay close and be ready to run," she murmured, voice almost drowned out by the whine of the bullhead's engines.

"It'll be fine." He reached out to squeeze her hand, but she pulled hers away and stepped quickly onto the airship.

"Welcome aboard," the pilot shouted. "Please stay behind the yellow line at all times and hold onto a rail whenever possible."

Qrow lingered near the door, first watching it slide closed and then staring through the window at the airfield. The engines rotated on the ends of the wings wings, their whine growing to a scream—

—and the ground fell away. It didn't even feel like they were rising, not until they were over the roofs of the hangars and picking up speed. Suddenly Raven's hand was in his, squeezing almost painfully tight.

"Oh,  _ fuck _ this." Her other hand clenched on the handrail and she looked like she was going to be sick.

"Never flown before?" the pilot asked. Now the doors were closed, the engines were muffled enough he didn't have to shout. "How'd you get to Vale?"

"Boat." They'd had the time, and hadn't had the lien for an airship.

"I'll go easy on the turns." He glanced back at them, and then the faunus girl. "Better have a landing strategy before the start of school though." 

"I'll keep that in mind," she growled through gritted teeth.

The ship banked again, and the ground disappeared almost entirely as the window turned upward to face the clouds. Raven dropped his hand as quickly as she'd grabbed it in order to seize the rail with both hands. Qrow glanced forward, toward the pilot, and outside the front window Beacon Academy swung into view.

"Whoa." It looked just like the pictures—better even, with spindly black-and-white spires silhouetted by the morning sun.

"It's something to see, all right," the captain said, leveling the ship back out. "Sure, Atlas may be a little more impressive, but who wants to live in that kind of cold?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, needs more editing but I would rather post something than nothing


	11. Raven—Into the Lions' Den

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, starting with the next chapter I'm going to try moving Update Day to Monday and see if that helps me keep my act together. I thought I'd be living closer to work by now, but looking for roommates is a pain :/ and I'm sick of posting barely-edited chapters at midnight.
> 
> [Minor TW for child abuse, injury - skip the first three paragraphs]

Just after unlocking their Semblances, before the bruises had even healed, Bones had begun teaching Raven and Qrow to fight. For seven-year-olds that mostly meant ducking, dodging, and using the terrain to their advantage—Branwen territory had plenty of convenient cliffs to jump from, if you knew how to land, and most Grimm wouldn’t follow.

_Pool your aura in your legs, bend your knees as you hit the ground to absorb your momentum, and roll forward just like we practiced._

She was halfway to the ground when her will wavered, and her new power rose from the clawing terror in her gut. A shadow tore the air beneath her, taking her back to Qrow at the top of the cliff—where she’d slammed into the ground, unprepared to land, and broken her aura and her arm.

At least she’d learned to control her Semblance by now. Her stomach was already churning from hurtling through the sky sealed in a tin can, but stepping onto the relatively solid ground of Beacon Cliff did nothing to calm it. Vale lay far below on the valley floor behind them, with only a few paces of concrete separating them from the edge. 

Ahead stood the fortress-castle of Beacon Academy, its spires as tall as any of the skyscrapers in Vale. She had thought—hoped—the school would be relatively quiet and empty when there were no classes going on, but more than a dozen Huntsmen and Huntresses were passing through the courtyard ahead doing gods knew what. 

Possibly most dangerously, Qrow stood right next to her.

“Come on, move,” he hissed, bumping her lightly as he passed. The faunus girl from the ferry had already hurried ahead, apparently as eager to get away from the two of them as Raven was to get the hell away from this death trap. She stumbled forward, her uncertainty catching his attention.

“Raven. Raven, are you okay?”

“How many Huntsmen do you think are stationed here?” she mumbled, pawing in her pocket for her flask before remembering. How the hell did any of these idiots stay alive without drinking? The Grimm would be all over them at the drop of a hat.

“I don’t know.”

“This was a mistake. We have to go, we have to—”

Qrow grabbed her hand. “We have to protect the tribe. Now get a grip or you’re gonna get us caught before we even walk in there. We can’t go home so soon, you know how Vanta will react.”

“ _Fine._ ” She yanked her hand away. She wasn’t an infant in need of coddling—wasn’t weak like him.

They followed the broad road away from the docks, watching as the towers seemed to grow the closer they got. Everything they had found said to apply at the CCT tower in the castle's heart, the largest and tallest of the spires. Smaller buildings scattered around it, fenced in by intricate stonework that would make convenient perches for archers or snipers.

“I think their trees are dying,” Qrow muttered, glancing at the edge of the road. Why in the world was he worried about trees at a time like this? Although... the ancient oaks would provide decent cover from the school, if it came to that.

But maybe not for much longer. Like Qrow said, the leaves were a vibrant autumn red despite the midsummer heat.

“Those are Forever Fall trees. Vale is famous for them.”

Raven jumped at the stranger’s voice, barely stopping herself from grabbing the hilt of her sword. The Huntsman chuckled, clasping his hands behind his back. “No need to worry about sneak attacks from the Grimm here. Our perimeter alarms are the best outside of Atlas.”

Raven took a step back, sizing him up. A heavy metal cross was strapped on his right arm, Dust crystals embedded along its length, but he seemed otherwise unarmed. He did have a tail, though, that was different. There had never been any faunus in the tribe, and she had never been this close to one that wasn’t trying to kill her before.

Although, this faunus was a Huntsman, so one wrong move and he’d be trying to kill her anyway.

“My name is Professor Leonardo,” he said, smiling, and Raven was vaguely relieved that he had normal teeth. She’d almost expected fangs. “I am the history teacher here, and I will be administering the written portion of the entrance exam today.”

“H-how did you know we’re here for that?” the faunus girl asked. She seemed a lot less nervous now, near the center of the fortress.

“Your weapons,” he said, tail swishing distractingly behind him. Raven looked down at the broadsword strapped to her hip, at the pitchfork hanging from the girl’s back. Compared to the other arms in the square, gleaming sculptures of steel and adamant, theirs looked...well, like farm tools. “Shall we head inside?”

Raven took a deep breath and glanced at Qrow. His eyes very obviously followed the faunus’s tail as it waved back and forth. She elbowed him as she walked past.

The tower itself was massive. Raven had never gotten close to the one in Mistral, for obvious reasons, but this one had to be at least twice its size. Stepping inside was like stepping into another world—Dust glowed from every surface, energy running in tubes and pooling in screens. Banks of computers lined up like soldiers on a wall. The place almost had an aura to it, the walls humming with suppressed power.

“This way,” the Huntsman said, gesturing at the elevators. “We’ll be using some of the fifth-floor offices.”

Raven didn’t like it here. Dust was meant to be raw, exhilarating, free, holding a fire in your soul that would burn if you weren’t strong enough to hold it back.

She gritted her teeth and followed the others to the elevator.


	12. Ozpin—Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey quick reminder I'm trying Monday uploads instead of Friday to see if I miss fewer weeks and write more.
> 
> Also, Carmine Eitri has nothing to do with Carmine Esclados. I wrote this long before her name was revealed and I don't want to change it. If we have to name every character after a color there are going to be repeats eventually ok

_We’re late,_ Ozpin thought. _At least one applicant will have fought already._

 _Our teachers have excellent judgement,_ he chided himself. _You’re too afraid to delegate. You’ll run yourself ragged trying to do everything alone._

_Well… I suppose I enjoy meeting them._

_You know, I rather enjoy it myself._ Ozpin chuckled under his breath, taking a sip from the mug of hot chocolate he always carried. _Becoming a Headmaster was one of my better ideas._

Sure enough, a young faunus woman was grappling with three small Grimm down in the ring. Oz crept into the stands of Beacon’s little arena, watching her trident blur as she struck at them from a safe distance. He walked toward two of the teachers watching from the first row below, careful to avoid letting his shoes click too loudly on the concrete.

“Is everything all right?” Zelenia asked as he reached their side. Neither professor turned to look at him, keeping their attention fixed on the fight below as the girl skewered one of the Creeps and rendered it to smoke.

“Hmm. Most of the Council is pushing to allocate more resources to the expansion. How are they?”

“That’s Betta Glaucous of Menagerie,” Carmine said, nodding as another Grimm fell to her trident. “The other two are twins from Anima.”

“Leo said their written examination scores were fairly consistent with their backgrounds.” Zelenia folded her arms. “This one, at least, seems competent in combat. I would recommend her.”

The last monster dead, the woman turned to face her examiners, and paled as she noticed Ozpin standing with them. He returned her flustered half-bow with what he hoped was a reassuring smile, and watched as she clambered nimbly back into the stands.

“Who would like to go next?” Leo asked warmly. Both twins looked sick to their stomachs, though the young woman’s face hardened as she slid to her feet. She vaulted into the pit without a word, drawing a simple sword.

“I’m ready,” she declared, glaring at the crate. Up in the stands her brother got to his feet, clutching the rail as he stared down after her.

“Raven Taupe,” Carmine said. “And her brother’s name is Qrow. Form rural Anima, western, I think.”

“They know more about Grimm than most of my third-year students,” Zelenia said, “though the rest of their scores are… hmm.” 

Below, the next crate slid open with a pneumatic hiss, one wall swinging up and out. A young Beowolf emerged, tail lashing as it sniffed at the air—its fur was matted, almost clinging to its frame. Clearly it had been in captivity for a few days. It looked nearly ready to disintegrate on its own.

Raven scowled, mirroring the wolf’s predatory gait as the two circled each other. There was a severity in the way she moved, tension in her face.

 _She’s insulted_ , they realized.

 It jumped forward with a snarl as she stepped fluidly from its path, sword rising to smack the beast in the thinnest section of its bone mask above the nose and shattering it.

“Oh, dear.” Carmine grabbed the rail as the Grimm roared in pain and rage, rearing. Zelenia had an arrow nocked and ready in an instant, and across the arena Leo and Mikado had readied their weapons as well. Qrow, Ozpin noted, seemed no more or less nervous than before.

Raven stepped forward, sword tracing a line down its belly between the lines of its exposed ribs, and flipped back on one hand as it slammed its paws into the stage where she’d been standing. Smoke curled from beneath it, and from its face where the bone had splintered and broken, like a candle dying under glass.

As soon as her feet met the ground again, she dashed forward and swept at the side of its face with the pommel of her sword rather than the blade. Metal met bone again, this time in the second-weakest part of the skull, and its jaw broke with an audible _crack_ and another roar of pain.

 _She’s_ toying _with it._

 _It_ is _an examination,_ he thought without much conviction. _Perhaps she’s just trying to demonstrate her abilities._

_Or she may not have the temperament for this line of work._

_Come on now, it’s only a Grimm..._

She pushed forward, driving the beast back toward its cage step by step. Smoke bled from dozens of cuts all over its pelt. The wolf whined as it backed under the awning, torn between its instinct to lash out at her bloodlust and whatever spark of self-preservation it may have possessed. She smiled, raising her blade for the final blow, and the Grimm almost seemed to bow before her as it cowered –

A small squeak of metal was their only warning before the crate door’s supports collapsed, letting the heavy wall of steel swing down and slam into the girl and the Grimm. Mikado and Zelenia leapt over the rail, sprinting for the crate.

“RAVEN!” the boy screamed, shifting his weight to jump with them—but a dark tear was opening behind him, tall and wide enough for a person to walk through.

“I’m fine.” She smacked him lightly behind the head, making him flinch.

“Sorry.” He seemed to wilt under his sister’s glare and Ozpin frowned. Yes, Miss Taupe most certainly had an attitude problem, but with a gift like that… perhaps she also had potential worth fostering.

 _After all, temperaments can change with a little extra guidance._ “Miss Taupe. How does your Semblance work, exactly?”

She froze like a startled rabbit, staring at him in something approaching panic. Then it was gone, and she replied with a stony, guarded expression. “I can return to my brother’s side from anywhere.”

“…And there is no range on how far you can travel?”

Her eyes narrowed. “No.”

“That is…” _Remarkable_. “…quite a gift.” _Though_ … He looked between Raven’s stony defiance and her brother’s evasive gaze. He didn’t seem to want to make eye contact. _Though I suspect these two may need more than a little guidance._ “What about you, Mister Taupe? I don’t suppose the two of you match?

The boy looked away from him, toward the stage, where the professors were climbing back into the stands. “I don’t have a Semblance.”

“Hmm. Well, it’s not unheard of at your age.” There were at least a few in every class, though admittedly not usually among the students who had grown up in the wilds as these two obviously had. “Are you ready?” The girl might have potential, but if the boy couldn’t defend himself it wouldn’t be worth training her.

“Yes, sir.” He didn’t wait for any further invitation and leapt over the rail, easily rolling back to his feet and drawing his weapons in a single smooth motion.

Ozpin nodded to Carmine, and the last crate hissed open.

His wolf was a little smaller than his sister’s had been, but more freshly caught. The boy shrank down as it approached, sniffing at the scent of human fear. In the stands, Professor Mikado trained the barrel of his rifle on the beast’s head, ready to fire if Qrow panicked.

The wolf reared, raising a paw to strike, but at the last possible second he struck first.

He leapt forward, swinging over his head with his sword as he darted below the Grimm’s raised arm. It stuck in the creature’s elbow, cutting in but not through, and he used it to guide his leap onto the wolf’s back. Wedging his feet between the bony spines for stability, he used his free hand to jam the barrels of his shotgun into the base of its neck.

BANG. He kicked off the beast’s back and tugged the sword free in one smooth motion, using the shotgun’s recoil to help power his jump. They hit the ground at the same time, the boy rolling to his feet while the Grimm vanished in a puff of smoke like a candle under glass.

He’d taken two steps back toward the spot where it collapsed before realizing it was gone and freezing in his tracks. 

Ozpin smiled lightly, glancing between the twins’ taut faces over the rim of his mug. “Welcome to Beacon.”

Qrow and Betta’s faces broke into relieved smiles, and Raven remained impassive. “Ordinarily you wouldn’t receive your results until closer to the start of term, but I suspect all three of you will need to make use of the forge. Please make appointments with Forgemaster Eitri before you leave today.” He nodded at Carmine, who smiled and waved.

 _That girl could be a problem,_ Ozpin thought, taking another sip of cocoa.

_She may also be a solution._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise viewpoint! I originally wrote this from Qrow's perspective, and then I redid it from Raven's perspective, and then I realized I wanted a few chapters to be from Ozpin's POV.
> 
> This was supposed to be chapter one, by the way. Everything before this—and the next chapter too—was supposed to be a short prologue section of, like, four chapters. I am in a hell of my own making
> 
> Speaking of which: I found an apartment! Starting in September I'll be living about 20 minutes from work instead of 110, so hopefully that will translate into me being more consistent with updates and more active on Tumblr.


	13. Qrow—Perspective (Alternate Draft)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Edit—Formerly "Chapter 12.5: Qrow's Point of View"
> 
> I'm not killing the fic! Moving is terrible. The AC broke the day before I showed up and still hasn't been fixed. Chapter 16 isn't done.
> 
>  
> 
> So...anyone want to read one of the other points of view for Chapter 12? Vote Qrow or Raven in the comments, and I'll post the winner tomorrow when I get home from work.
> 
> My askbox is open on Tumblr too (@fire-the-headcanons)

Qrow won by a landslide, so here is the original first chapter of this fic. A lot's changed since I first wrote this bit, so minor details will be off.

I'll post Raven's POV next time life gets too crazy to update, I really don't want to miss more than one week in a row.

 

Qrow held his breath as Raven dropped into the pit, rolling to her feet and drawing her sword in a single fluid motion. _Don't mess this up. Not today, please._

"I'm ready," she snapped, holding the point at eye level, fixing her gaze on the steel crate before her.

_Don't hurt her don't hurt her don't hurt her –_

The front of the crate slid out and upward with a pneumatic hiss, stopping when it was parallel to the ground like the awning of a tent. A young Beowolf emerged, its tail lashing back and forth as it sniffed the air. It'd clearly been in captivity for at least a couple days, it looked on the edge of wilting. Qrow noticed – though the examiners probably didn't – the slight shift in Raven's bearing, the insult taken at being given such a weak opponent.

Of course, luck was everything in a fight. Qrow's nails dug into his arms as he leaned forward in his seat, hating the fact that he had to be this close but couldn't help.

The Grimm jumped forward, snarling. Raven ducked beneath its claws, slashing upward in a neat arc and cutting deep into the creature's forearm. It snarled in pain, snapping at her head with its teeth, and she dodged the other way. She struck over and over again, too quickly for the monster to respond, and it began to shrink away under the assault.

_Quit showing off and just finish it, Raven –_

They had moved under the open face of the Beowolf's crate now, the black smoke trailing from the creature's injuries almost obscuring the pair of them as it took one last frantic lunge.

There was a loud _snap_ as one of the pistons holding the door open broke, and it slammed shut with a ringing _crash_ like a blow to the head. Her sword didn't make it all the way inside with her, and its broken point fell to the sand outside the resealed crate.

"RAVEN!" Qrow screeched, jumping to his feet and seizing the railing as the watching examiners leapt into the pit after her.

"I'm fine," she snapped, smacking him on the back of the head. "It's dead, but you're welcome to pry that thing open and check," she shouted to the Huntsmen below, tossing the broken hilt down into the sand.

"Sorry," Qrow muttered.

"Shut up."

One of the examiners wedged his spear in the gap and wedged the door up enough to shine the light from his scroll into the crate. "Empty."

"How exactly does your Semblance work, Miss Taupe?"

Qrow's eyes snapped up from the pit to the man standing on the other side, his breath caught in his throat. _When the hell did Professor Ozpin get here?_

If Raven was surprised as well, she didn't show it, though it took a second for her to answer. Secrets like that were precious in the tribe, and here he was asking her in front of a dozen Beacon applicants. "I can return to my brother's side from anywhere."

The headmaster looked surprised. "That is… quite a gift. What about you, Mr. Taupe? I don't suppose the pair of you match?"

"I don't have a Semblance," Qrow murmured, dropping his gaze back to the crate that was being wheeled out of the pit for repair, replaced by an identical box that held something snarling loudly.

"Hmm. Well, it's not too unusual for someone your age to still be looking," he said, sipping from his mug. "Would you like to go next?"

"Yes, sir." Qrow lied, leaping over the rail and landing easily in the soft sand of the pit. It felt – and sounded – like his heart was beating in the back of his throat as he drew his weapons, the latest in a long line of shoddy stolen swords and shotguns that had carved a hellish path of death and misery across Anima.

The latest and, he prayed, the last. _You can do this. All you have to do is kill one Grimm and then you never have to go home again._

He forced a smile, keeping his hands from shaking as he raised the weapons to ready position. "Let's go."

The crate hissed open. His wolf was a little smaller than Raven's, but more freshly caught. It stalked straight toward him, its fur standing on end, alert to his fear. It reared on its hind legs, towering over him, raising a paw to strike.

Qrow sprang into action, streaking under its raised arm and swinging his sword over his head as he passed. It stuck in the creature's elbow, cutting in but not through, and Qrow used it to guide his leap onto the creature's back. He wedged his left foot between the creature's spines, leaving his hand free to shove the shotgun barrels into the back of the Grimm's neck.

He pulled the trigger, kicking off of the creature's back in time with the shotgun's recoil and tugging the sword free in one smooth motion. This time the sand made landing harder and he skidded a few feet before finally coming to a stop. He straightened up, raising the blade again –

– but the only thing left of the wolf was a small puff of black smoke, rolling out over the sand and disappearing.

 _Maybe it was a little more wilted than I thought._ He glanced at the headmaster, who was staring down at him over the rim of his coffee mug with an inscrutable expression. The moment seemed to hang – he'd absolutely failed the academic test. What if their combat ability just wasn't enough, what if –

But then, the moment passed, and the Professor's face softened as he smiled at each of them in turn."…Welcome to Beacon, Miss and Mister Taupe."

"Thank you, Professor Ozpin," Raven said stiffly. Qrow couldn't stop the wild grin from breaking across his face. They were _free._

Even if Raven didn't really see it yet.

He stowed his weapons, running straight at Raven. The momentum carried him halfway up the wall, and then he caught her hand and she helped him over the last few feet.

"Ordinarily you wouldn't receive your results until tomorrow, but I suspect the two of you will need to make use of the forge before the start of term," Professor Ozpin continued. "Please make an appointment with Forgemaster Carmine on the way out." Behind him, a tiny Huntress with cherry-red hair waved to them.

"Thank you, sir," Qrow said, uncontrollable grin still plastered across his face. Raven seized his wrist and tugged him back to their seats.

"What happened to avoiding unnecessary attention?" Raven murmured as the next applicant gingerly lowered herself into the ring. "Showoff."

"It didn't seem that wilted, I didn't think it would be so easy."

"Well you certainly seem pleased with yourself."

"And you're pretty grumpy for someone who's plan is working so well," Qrow countered.

"This was your idea," she breathed, far too quietly for the other applicants to hear. "And four years of living in a nest of Huntsmen isn't something to get _excited_ about."

The enraged hissing of the three Creeps below was making it far easier to avoid being heard. "You're not getting cold feet, are you?" Qrow joked, but his stomach clenched.

"No," she snapped. Qrow let it be, watching silently as the girl in the pit slowly took down each of her opponents. Raven always got like this when she was scared.


	14. Taiyang—Ice-olation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...forgot to post it. Uh....whoops.
> 
> In other news, this story is now longer than Macbeth, and I have written one (1) chapter that was actually in my first draft

“Ugh. It’s the same argument every time,” Summer muttered, “only the usernames are different. _Just let him type!_ ”

“Huh?” Tai asked, barely sparing a glance from his game. When he looked back at the screen his ninja’s aura had gone down by half. “Ack. Dangit.”

“Whenever somebody tries to tell a story about the Grimm Reaper on this forum everyone starts demanding they prove it happened and they never even get to finish.” Her keyboard clattered distractingly as Tai cut through a couple small Grimm.

“I thought you were doing Ozpin research.”

“I can only read so many conspiracy theories in one day.” She was depressingly right about  _that_.

The picture started to shake, and his ninja was nowhere near cover. “Wait, wait, wait—! Dangit!” The ground erupted under him as a wave of Creeps tunneled out and the ninja disappeared into a pile of snarling black-and-white pixels. He tossed the controller down on the couch. “So what’s the story?”

“Oh. A Huntsman from Vacuo met her last year—”

“—Supposedly,” Tai interrupted with a grin.

She turned in her seat to glare at him, eyes shining viciously, “and says she vaporized a Grimm with her Semblance.”

“I thought nobody knew what her Semblance was.”

“Well, that’s why it’s exciting!”

The door rattled, and outside Mrs. Rose muttered something that could easily have been a curse under her breath. Tai leapt up and ran over to unlock it.

“Thank you, dear.” Her arms were full of paper bags, and he quickly stepped out of the way as she made a beeline for the kitchen—followed by his dad, Zaff, and Dan. His hand tightened on the doorknob as they filed in, faces solemn.

“…What’s going on?” Summer asked, her chair scraping as she abandoned the computer.

“Letters.” Zaff brandished his neatly sliced envelope.

Tai’s gaze snapped back to his father. “Did mine—” he began.

He was already holding it out, the gold-embossed combined emblem of the four kingdoms in the upper corner instead of a stamp. “I’m proud of you, no matter what it says.”

“Come on come on come on,” Summer chanted, almost shredding her envelope in her eagerness to get it open. Tai followed suit and slid the letter out. “Beacon!” Summer declared. 

Tai unfolded the paper, smiling in relief at the green axes of Vale. “Me too.”

“Same,” Dan said. “Can you imagine the look on Professor Mesánychta’s face when we all walk into her classroom? I bet she thought she’d seen the last of us when she left Signal.”

“Poor Zelenia,” Claret muttered, and his dad elbowed her.

Zaff slowly drew his own letter out. “Um...about that.” The paper fell open, revealing an ice-blue seal of a torch, or maybe a staff. “I didn’t get my first choice.”

Everyone stared, even the adults, unsure of what to say. Tai had never been able to stand uncomfortable silences. “...You hate the cold.”

“But I love to travel.” Zaff smiled. “It’ll be alright, what else are the CCT towers for?” The brightness in his tone was genuine. Everyone liked that about him. “I pity the poor fool that gets stuck with the three of you, though. Still gotta have four on a team.”

“There’s got to be some kind of, of appeal—” Dan started, voice cracking as Zaff took his hand. “Come on, the four of us were supposed to stick together!” 

“We’ll, uh, give you some space,” Summer said, grabbing Tai’s arm and dragging him into the kitchen.

“Do you think they’re going to break up?” Tai whispered with a glance back over his shoulder, but all he saw were his dad and Mrs. Rose following behind them. “They’ve been together for two years!”

Summer only shrugged before letting her shoulders sag. “I don’t know. I mean, we’ve got all summer before we leave. And, well, the towers. It’s not like we can’t talk to him.”

She was right, of course, but Tai couldn’t help thinking a _little_ about when Mr. Rose had died. The rest of team ASCH had never been the same. Even if Zaff was just going to another school, it felt like DZST was suffering a similar blow.

“You know, there’s every chance you kids will all end up on different teams,” his dad said gently. “Ozpin usually prefers to, uh—”

“—Make sure his students learn to work with various types of people,” Mrs. Rose finished. “Cooperation is important for Huntresses. You need to be ready for the possibility.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to look forward to it,” Summer muttered, glancing at the door. Their voices were barely audible from the next room. Tai couldn’t make out words, just stress and sadness.

Mrs. Rose started putting the groceries away. “…Let’s all order out tonight. …We still have plenty to celebrate. You all made it into one of the Huntsman Academies!”

But their parents quietly agreed when Dan and Zaff came in a few minutes later, both still visibly upset, and politely excused themselves from staying for dinner. 

It had never occurred to Tai that their team might not get to stay together at Beacon. And now that he was thinking about it, splitting him and Summer up would be the perfect way to keep them from investigating Ozpin while they were there.


	15. Qrow—Whoops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This probably should have been two chapters.

The squat stone building looked more like a warehouse than anything else, except for the various chimneys. A set of metal double doors opened straight onto the shop floor, where a half dozen Huntsmen and Huntresses were doing some kind of work on their weapons at the workstations scattered around the room. At the sound of the doors, one of them yanked off her goggles and Qrow recognized the red-haired professor they'd spoken to yesterday.

"Ah, the Taupe twins! You're early!" she said cheerfully, hopping down from her stool. A couple of the floor's other occupants glanced up, but quickly resumed their work. 

"S-sorry," he stammered as she reached them. 

"No problem, I could use a break," she said, gesturing for the two of them to follow her into a much smaller room—probably the classroom, actually, from the number of desks. "It'll be a bit quieter in here."

Raven scowled quizzically at the door. "Aren't they old to be students?" 

"Well, they're not," Carmine said. "Pro Huntsmen use the schools' forges all the time for upgrades, repairs, what have you. It's one of the main benefits of being licensed. And the kingdoms build a few big, well-stocked facilities instead of dozens of small ones that only have the bare essentials. " She rubbed her hands together excitedly. "But school hasn't started yet, so I'll save the lectures for next week! Let's see what you've been using." 

The twins drew their weapons and set them out on the workbench. Carmine kicked a short stool over without even glancing at it and hopped up for a better look.

"Garbage," she said dismissively, flicking Raven's two-handed sword before seizing Qrow's shotgun and popping it open to inspect the Dust assembly. "Though well-maintained. You one-shotted a Beowolf with  _ this? _ "

"Uh…"

"Again, you did a great job fixing it up," she said, tossing each piece in the scrap bins behind her as she broke it down. "But you didn't come to Beacon to keep using hand-me-downs, did you."

"No, ma'am."

She yanked the Dust assembly free and inspected it. "Hmm.  _ Less _ terrible." she muttered, setting the assembly carefully back on the bench. "So what do you two have in mind? We don't really have time to forge custom pieces before classes start, but you'll need to use something while we work on your designs."

"Something like that would do," Raven said, looking up at the long single-edged blade hanging on the wall.

"I said basic, not simple," Carmine said. "That's practically a template."

"I want something simple. Easy to maintain."

"Hmm. Y'know, I think the SDC sent something a while back that fits the bill." She stepped down and crossed to a large cabinet emblazoned with the familiar snowflake. "They keep asking me to come and work for them, say they want to expand their weapons catalog beyond just ammunition. As if I'd ever leave Oz hanging like that. Here we are!" she shoved a few rifles out of the way and grabbed a black cylinder. 

"What is it?"

"The blade's removable," Carmine said, seizing the hilt and pulling it from the large scabbard. Instead of a blade, there was a nub about a hand's breadth wide for one to be slotted into. "People have been trying to make swords out of Dust for years—the ultimate engineering challenge. Too brittle and rigid. The Schnees' solution was to give you a few replacements." She angled the scabbard so the twins could see the rainbow of different blades inside. "Let's see how it does, shall we?"

She slotted the hilt back into place and pulled the trigger with an audible  _ click. _ When she drew it again, it held a glittering, blood-red blade. "Looks like they've suspended powdered Dust in some kind of resin. Crystals of this size would cost a fortune."

"Resin wouldn't hold an edge very well." Raven said.

"There's a few steel blades in there too. But with Dust—" Her aura sparked around her hand and the blade ignited. "Not bad for mass-produced! Wanna give it a swing, kid?"

Raven accepted the blade and scabbard—it was definitely a better size for her than the Professor.

"I'm surprised they didn't put a pistol in the hilt, that's pretty standard these days. We can work on some modifications later." She frowned. "Although… I could have sworn there was  _ some  _ ranged component," Carmine muttered, returning to the locker and hauling out a box from the bottom. "You'll want the manual anyway." 

Raven inspected the hilt of her sword as the Professor dug through dozens of near-identical books. "Here we go!" Carmine beamed, flipping through one. "Ah, the scabbard's got an ejector." She reached out and pressed a button on the cylinder in Raven's left hand.

_ BOOM. _

An ice-blue blade shot from the sheath and smashed against the wall, erupting into a jagged star of ice. Raven shrieked as the cylinder nearly tore itself from her grip, dropping her sword to catch it with her other arm.

Carmine paled. "Whoops. That's significantly stronger than standard. Are you all right, dear?"

"I'm fine," Raven said, strapping the cannon to her belt. Qrow didn't miss the pointed glare she snuck at him over the professor's head.

"A bit excessive," Carmine muttered. "But handy against something big. Anyway! They're manufacturing this with private security in mind, I think, but you know the SDC. You'll be able to walk into any Dust shop and pick up more blades for a pittance." She squinted at the manual. "What do you think?"

Raven retrieved the hilt, careful not to brush anything as flames danced along its length. "It's a good size."

Carmine raised an eyebrow. "Well, uh, why don't you take it outside and get acquainted. I've got a couple other 'basic' options if this one doesn't feel right."

Raven nodded and clipped the scabbard to her belt, turning away.

"What about you, son? How are you with Dust?" the Professor asked, one hand on the cabinet door.

Qrow shrugged. "Kinda lousy."

She nodded, closing the locker. "I always say the modern Huntsmen rely on it too much. Are you looking to stick with dual wielding? Sword and shotgun?"

His face grew embarrassingly warm. "I'd, uh…I'd like to learn to use scythes."

"Scythes?" Carmine looked bewildered.

Qrow stared at the floor, too embarrassed to make eye contact, ears burning like Raven had singed them with that fire blade. At least she wasn't in the room right now.  "...Like the Grimm Reaper?" The professor probably wouldn't even know what he was  _ talking  _ about, why would she know about some obscure character from—

"Oh! Those are kamas, more like sickles than scythes. But there aren't any kama wielders at Beacon, you wouldn't have anyone to teach you."

"…Oh." A blanket of disappointment settled over him. He should have known it wouldn't—

"Hey, cheer up! I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying it'll be a challenge," Carmine insisted, tapping him on the elbow with her fist. "But you'll need a more conventional weapon too. Something you can work with in class without your teachers coming to yell at me. So, dual-wielding, or combination?"

"Combination." He wanted to be able to use recoil better…and it probably wasn't a good idea to keep mimicking Bones' style.

"Let's try in here." She opened another cabinet and started flicking through various blades. "How about this?"

"Isn't it a little big?" Qrow asked apprehensively as she dragged a massive broadsword out and extended it—the thing was more than half his height, and at least two palms wide for most of its length. It was so massive the blade retracted in the middle to make it possible to wear.

"They don't put a gun this big on a rapier," she said, tapping the shotgun embedded into the blade. "Besides, it's better quality metal than that hacksaw you brought in. Here." She handed it to him, handle first.

It was  _ surprisingly _ light, barely heavier than his old sword had been despite being twice its size.  Now that he was holding it though, he could see the blade was hollow.

"We usually use adamant alloys here, it's far lighter and stronger than steel. The blade's width makes it better for defense," Carmine said as Qrow gave it a few experimental swings. Despite its size, it wasn't too hard to wield one-handed. "It's big enough to kind of use as a shield in a pinch—it'll cover your vitals, anyway. Take it outside, swing it around a bit, see if it feels all right."

"O-okay," Qrow said, following the professor out into the yard. There was ice everywhere, and Raven looked fairly pleased as she swung at a practice dummy. She'd always been pretty good with Dust, even if it was hard to come by at home.

"You two spar for a couple minutes and I'll observe," Carmine said, drawing a small pad of paper from her pocket. Raven shrugged and swapped out the glittering ice blade for a metal one. "Don't let your auras fall below fifty percent, you'll want to be fully recovered by the start of school."

"Yes, ma'am," Qrow said, raising his new sword. Raven copied him and stepped to the left. He mirrored her in turn, and they slowly circled, waiting for the other person to move first.

"I didn't think you'd pick something so simple," she said, swinging down in an overhead strike. Qrow pushed forward, swinging up to knock it away even as he stepped right to avoid the spear of ice that shot from her scabbard. It crashed behind him, tinkling like broken glass as the ice grew.

"Careful, Miss Taupe!" Carmine warned. "That's a bit excessive for practice!"

Raven rolled her eyes, striking at Qrow's shoulder. He knocked her blade away again, fired the shotgun to change the blade's direction more quickly, and swung at her exposed side. She flipped back, taking the strike on the scabbard's case.

"It's just to start with." Qrow grinned. His sword wasn't too different from his old one, but Raven's seemed like it was much lighter. He might actually win today, if he could focus on keeping her off-balance.

He leapt forward, sweeping at her shoulder. She ducked beneath it and struck at his knees—he jumped, changing the blade's arc to plant in the ground and kicked with both feet at Raven's stomach.

She stepped back but not far enough—his foot connected with her hip hard enough to send her stumbling back a step. The momentum carried him over the sword, and he landed with both feet behind it as Raven recovered. She screamed as she leapt forward, swinging at his right ear—he fired again, using the recoil to force the sword out of the ground and into her blade's path.

_ Whomph. _ Now it was his turn to sprawl back as her knee caught him in the stomach. He parried three more strikes, trying to regain momentum.

There—an opening—her sword was just a little too far out from her center. He sprang forward and leapt right past her exposed side, swinging at her back as he passed. She raised her left hand from the scabbard and caught it, her aura flashing around her hand under the pressure, before jabbing her blade at Qrow's stomach. His own aura glowed from the impact, and again in response as he knocked a second strike aside with the back of his arm and fired the shotgun to wrench his sword from Raven's grip.

"Tournament rules, for pity's sake!" Carmine screeched, and the twins froze in alarm. "I've never seen such a reckless display!"

Qrow stepped back, heart pounding harder now than when they'd been fighting. What had they done wrong?

The professor took a deep breath. "Miss Raven, I would recommend rolling forward in a situation like that. Grabbing your opponent's weapon may seem like an easy way to win, but it will drain your aura  _ exceptionally  _ quickly and get you disqualified from a proper match. Mister Qrow, a simple kick to the knee would have sufficed."

"Yes, ma'am," he said quickly.

"All right. Well. You'd both better call it quits for the day," she continued, still breathing harder than before. "You should make another appointment by the end of the week, so we can begin customizing your weapons. And do yourselves a favor—look up the tournament rules before term starts. Professor Mikado won't hesitate to give you detention despite your current lack of formal training."

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you." Qrow's heart was pounding in the back of his throat, and his knuckles were white on the hilt of his sword. He couldn't see what Raven was doing.

Carmine's expression finally seemed to soften. "…Remember, the rules are there to keep you safe too, not just your opponent. A big part of becoming a Huntsman or Huntress is learning your limits. You and your team have to be able to rely on each other, and that means managing risk." She glared at Raven, waiting for a response.

His sister's face was impassive. "Yes, ma'am."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Carmine I wanted to do the "crazy engineer" trope, but make her high-empathy and momlike instead of the usual asocial/"lol wut is human" traits that are common with that archetype, especially when it's a woman. Not sure if I got that across as well as I'd hoped but I love her anyway.


	16. Summer—First Impressions

“Promise you’ll call every weekend,” her mom demanded, holding her tighter. “You’ve got an entire CCT tower in the middle of campus. No excuses.”

“I promise!” Summer said returning the gesture. “And I promise to keep my room clean, and get along with my teammates, and not harass the headmaster, and every other thing you’ve said this week. Mom, we’re only like an hour away. Less if Balt can take you the whole way.”

“Geez, can you imagine if we’d actually gone to Shade?” Tai complained with a good-natured smile as his dad finally let him go. “Fly safe.”

“I am a _professional_.” Balt straightened his tie. “And you too.”

“Do you think Azraq will be able to talk Saturday?”

“Without you pranksters around I’m sure his workload will get a lot lighter,” he said. “But we need to head out now. Unless you two want to take the ferry back to the island.”

“All right, all right.” Her mom handed over her other suitcase. “I love you.”

“Love you too.” Hands full, Summer headbutted her mom’s shoulder before following Dan and Tai toward the shuttle that would head to the Academy. Students were already lining up to stow luggage in the hold, or to board on the top deck. Their parents and Balt headed for a slightly smaller ship swarmed by younger students, headed to Patch and Signal.

“I wish Zaff were here,” Tai muttered, yanking one of his suitcases over a crack in the concrete.

“Me too.” Summer pressed her tongue between her teeth. Leaving home didn’t scare her one bit. Getting partnered with complete strangers? Terrifying. 

Dan elbowed her. “The three of us just need to stick together.” She glanced at Tai behind his back, sharing a brief look of concern. He’d almost been taking their breakup too well.

It didn’t take long to get everything stowed, and then they were some of the last ones on the ship. Students of every year packed into every corner of the vessel, most of them wearing or carrying their weapons. Summer was glad she’d left Gungnir hanging from her belt.

“It’s so crowded,” Dan complained, ducking under the lance of another first year.

“There’s room back here,” Tai said, squeezing past some older students and heading toward the back of the ship. There _was_ a lot more space away from the windows… or maybe people were trying to avoid the girl wedged in the back corner of the ship. She sat on her weapon—a massive black tube with a handle at one end that seemed far too small for the rest of it—and scowled at the floor like she wanted to set it on fire.

“So what _is_ your plan for dealing with Ozpin?” Dan asked, leaning against a decorative strut. “Since you promised not to break into his office.”

“Well, he’s a government official, it doesn’t seem like the best idea,” Summer said, dropping onto a bench and setting Gungnir in her lap. “We barely got away with it at Signal and an Academy will have better security.”

Tai nodded. “We’re hoping if we can see who he’s meeting with, it might help us figure out what he’s doing.”

“ ‘Long as you don’t miss classes and bring the team down.”

“Shut up!”

The ground hummed as the ship rose smoothly into the air, and over near the windows some of the other first years _ooh_ ed and _ahh_ ed. Summer had seen it all before, plenty of times—the four of them had gone to a few summer camps at the Academy.

The girl in the corner grunted, swearing viciously under her breath as the ship banked.

“You okay?” The boy sitting next to her asked, looking up from his book.

“Shut up.”

Summer realized what was so off-putting about the pair—their battle gear was all black, red, and white. Grimm colors. Though, it matched their red eyes and black hair.

The boy shrugged and slouched over his book again, part of his costume falling over his shoulder as he did. It took Summer a second to realize, but he was wearing a cape.

She was instantly jealous. Growing up—dreaming of what her Huntress battle gear would be like one day—she’d always wanted a long flowing cloak like Lady Pimpernel, or the Grimm Reaper… But she’d never had the confidence to actually  _do_ it, sticking to her signature white hoodies instead.

The boy looked up—maybe he’d sensed her staring at him, but their eyes met and Summer felt her face grow warm with embarrassment as she gave a small, awkward wave. He gave a tentative half-wave back, and Summer busied herself checking over Gungnir’s ammunition. 

In the corner of her eye, the boy leaned toward the girl and whispered something. The Grimm girl replied at full volume, “She’s staring at you because you’re wearing a gods-damned cape, crow.”

 _Well, there’s no need to call anyone names_. Summer scowled at the girl before returning to her magazines.

“Making friends?” Dan muttered under his breath.

“Oh, shut up.”

“Is that a SDC Guillotine?” Tai asked suddenly. 

The girl stared at him, one hand moving to rest on her seat. “Why.” It wasn’t a question, more of a demand for information.

“Uh… ‘cause they’re cool, and not available to the public for another three months?” Tai said. “Are you two from Atlas?”

“No.”

Tai blinked, apparently weighing whether it was worth the effort—or risk—to continue the conversation. For reasons unknown, he decided it was. “...Mantle?”

“No.”

Summer decided she did not like this girl.

“Professor Carmine gave us our weapons,” her brother—he _had_ to be related to her somehow, right? They were practically identical—took his turn to scowl at her. She wilted, even more shocked by him taking their side than they were by her rudeness. “We’re farmhands from Anima, we tested in to the school.”

“Where did a couple of farmhands learn to fight?” Dan asked, a sour note in his voice, and Summer turned to stare. _What on Remnant was that for?_

“The...village huntsman…” Crow stammered, shrinking. “Uh, he… taught a lot of the kids, in town—”

She jumped in before Dan could jam his foot any further in his mouth, hoping to smooth things over.  “He must be glad you got into a Huntsman Academy.”

“He’s dead,” the girl snapped.

The rest of the ride passed in awkward silence. Crow returned to his book—when he shifted, Summer caught a glance at the cover. They’d used that history textbook two years ago at Signal...hopefully Dan hadn’t noticed. 

As soon as the ship landed, Dan made a beeline for the exit. “Can you believe that?” he demanded, glancing back to make sure the pair were out of earshot.

Tai blinked, one hand on the rail of the stairs leading down toward the hold. “Believe what?”

“Zaff’s stuck in Atlas so two rubes from Mistral can play dress-up?” Dan snarled under his breath, boots clanging on the metal steps. “What’s the admissions board doing?”

“...Oh.” She hadn’t thought about it that way. “You didn’t have to snap at them like that…”

“Whatever.” He yanked his luggage off the pile. “They’ll probably drop out before second semester.” 

“First years, please leave your things in the ballroom and make your way to the auditorium!” A short man with a large blond moustache directed traffic on the main path. Older students flowed around him, away from the landing stage and toward the dorms.

Dan continued as the crowd thinned. “They should give priority to people that want to go to their own kingdom’s school.”Summer scowled, but it wasn’t worth it to push the issue. Dan wasn’t very easy to talk to when he got in a mood.

 _It’s like he’s more upset than Zaff was_.

The three of them stacked their belongings together, and followed the other students toward the giant circular building. Upperclassmen flooded up the stairs, but Professor Mesánychta and a faunus that Summer didn’t recognize directed the first years out onto the floor.

“Hi, Professor,” Tai called out, and Summer waved from around his shoulder.

“Mr. Xiao Long, your father warned me you three were coming,” she waved them past with a smile.

The interior of the auditorium was even larger than the other hall had been, though the floor was smaller. Seats ringed the walls, completely full of the older students. A stage had been wheeled out, giving the first-years a decent view of the teachers standing on it.

The babble of voices died down as Professor Ozpin stepped forward and cleared his throat. “To our returning students, welcome back. Remnant thanks you for your continuing commitment to protect the people. To our new students, welcome. You have walked a long road to reach these halls, and it will be a long road that takes you through them. Though you all have many different origins, you now share one destination—but remember, the road does not end on graduation day. You must always keep moving forward.

“Tonight you will all stay in the ballroom. Tomorrow, you will complete your initiation. I suggest you all get some rest. Welcome to Beacon.”

Summer clapped along with the other students, glancing at her friends. Tai was grinning up at the stage like he was ready to take on the entire wilds by himself, but next to him Dan was still glaring into the crowd. A heavy feeling of dread settled in her stomach. _I wish Ozpin had said something about our teams…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You want slow burn? I'll give you slow burn. These frickers don't even MEET until chapter 15


	17. Raven—Rock and a Hard Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm. I don't know how to fix the chapter numbering.

To Raven's dismay students had already claimed the corners of the ballroom, leaving her and her twin to shelter in a far more exposed position against a wall. Guillotine's sheath lay disassembled on the floor before her, blades stacked carefully to the side as she cleaned it. Just something to make her look busy as she watched their neighbors. 

The hilt lay next to her right knee, steel blade already slotted in. Just in case. Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training milled all around them, their weapons never more than a couple paces away.

"Relax," Qrow murmured, flipping to a new section of his textbook.

She wanted to smack him. How could he be so calm here—how could he sit there, absorbed in a book and oblivious to his surroundings in enemy territory? And leave her to watch for trouble on her own. She settled for a question muttered through not-quite-gritted teeth. "What are you reading now?"

"Our weapons manufacturing and maintenance textbook," he turned a few more pages before hissing under his breath, "...nothing about scythes either."

Raven's hands froze, the cleaning cloth wedged between two blade slots as she stared directly at him. He was still scanning through the index with a frown.

"It's a comic book, Qrow. Nobody really fights with a scythe. It's just a farm tool."

"...The Grimm Reaper's a real Huntress. Life and Death are real weapons, Professor Carmine said they're called kamas."

" _Fine_." Raven continued cleaning, though more aggressively. "And why do you care?" He didn't answer, but though the corner of her eye his hands tightened on the book. "You can't be serious!"

"They're unusual." His voice dropped. "Most Huntsmen wouldn't know how to counter one. Not like a sword."

"You can't start over with an entirely new weapon."

"Why not?"

Raven exhaled, stomach twisting with frustration. "As long as it's not some overcomplicated multi-form disaster that's going to break down in the middle of nowhere."

"You mean like a gun that shoots sword blades?" 

"The sword still works if the gun breaks." Raven tucked the cloth back in her bag and started reassembling Guillotine. "You make everything so difficult."

"Isn't this why Dad taught us to read?" Qrow whined, setting the book open in his lap. "So we could learn new things and help the tribe?"

Raven's fists clenched along with her teeth. " _Don't. Call him. That._ You sound like an _infant._ "

Qrow flinched, but hesitated before speaking. "A name like his is going to draw attention here." He returned to reading, leaving Raven to scan the hall for trouble. Alone.

Again.

"I guess I'll take second watch too, then?" she snapped.

"Raven." He didn't even bother to look up. "We're in the middle of a fortress, surrounded by trained Huntsmen. We don't need to sit watches."

Dammit, he was right, and she _hated_ it. The only way to avoid going home in disgrace—or worse—was to blend in. Pretend to be the weak-willed farmhands their forged passports claimed them to be.

Her jaw had ached from the strain of her clenched teeth by the time Guillotine was reassembled, but she couldn't seem to let go of the tension. Every muscle in her body felt wound up even as the light dimmed and the ballroom grew quieter and quieter.

She was still watching the moonlight climb the wall when Qrow had drifted off, desperately wishing she could rest but kept awake by the peaceful breathing of all the people that would gladly kill them. All it would take was one mistake.

Raven was starting to think they had already made it by coming here.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I (re)wrote _four chapters_ this weekend. I have a _buffer_
> 
> I feel _fabulous_


	18. Taiyang—Forever Apartner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: ProWritingAid keeps wiping my formatting, and I keep forgetting about it

The first-years flooded down the path in a mass, the bricks under their feet growing rougher with every step away from the school. The sky was clear, there was a light breeze, and Tai couldn’t wait to kill some Grimm.

Dan scowled at the back of the faunus Professor’s head, all the way up at the front of the group. “Why. So.  _Early_.”

“Probably so they can assign teams after the assessment,” Summer replied, her voice taut. Tai’s stomach clenched in an unpleasant way that had nothing to do with the upcoming fight, whatever it entailed.

“I’m just saying. We had to drag all our crap up here yesterday and then we slept on the floor. It’s not a great way to see us fight at our best.”

“But it is a good way to see how you handle adversity.”

Tai froze, head whipping around toward the man who had snuck up behind them, and Summer let out a shocked squeak. They knew that voice, they’d been watching and re-watching recordings of the man’s few public addresses for months.

“Y-yes, Professor Ozpin,” Dan stammered, turning a bright scarlet.

More heads were turning as the group milled to a stop a safe distance from the edge of Beacon cliff. Far below, the Emerald Forest stretched on for miles in an ocean of uninterrupted green. No buildings, no roads.

It was unsettling in a way he wasn’t prepared for.

“As Huntsmen and Huntresses, you’ll rarely have the opportunity to work at your best. You’ll frequently be tired, or hungry, or discouraged. But the people in your care will still need you.” He took a sip from his coffee mug. “Welcome to initiation.” 

He didn’t shout, but he didn’t need to. “All of you have spent your lives up to this point training and learning to become warriors. Consider this your examination. At the northern end of the forest, there is a small ruined temple containing various relics. You and your partner are to retrieve one and return here to the clifftop.”

“So we’re getting our teams assigned today?” someone shouted from the middle of the crowd.

“In a way,” Ozpin replied with a smile that Tai could only describe as _devious_ , walking with his cane but putting next to no weight on it as he circled to the front of the group.  “The first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the duration of your time at Beacon.”

_WHAT?_

Tai wasn’t alone in his assessment. Dan sucked in air like someone had just punched him in the diaphragm, and Summer downright whimpered. Anxious mutters erupted from the other students, almost but not quite drowning out a fervently whispered, “Oh thank _gods_.”

A dozen eyes stared incredulously at the one who said it—with a jolt, Tai realized it was the grumpy girl from the shuttle, looking much happier than she had yesterday. At least until she realized she was the center of attention and froze with the same kind of terror of a person who broke wind during a school presentation.

“I hope I don’t need to warn you that the forest below is full of the creatures of Grimm,” Ozpin continued, and everyone faced the front again. “And while your teachers will be monitoring your progress, we will not interfere if you find yourselves in over your heads. Are there any questions?”

Tai had plenty of questions, _are you fucking kidding me_ at the top of the list, but his voice seemed to have stopped working.

“Well, I guess it’s better than teams being assigned,” Summer said with grim determination, shifting her grip on Gungnir. “Keep your eyes on the ground until we find each other.”

“If you are ready, step forward,” Ozpin said, waving his cane at the launch plates set at the edge of the cliff. The three of them pushed forward together, easily getting to the head of the line. It was like most people weren’t super eager to be hurled off a cliff.

“All right. Find each other first, then we’ll figure out what to do about a fourth person,” Dan said, taking the first plate.

“Right.” Summer stepped up next to him, extending her spear and twisting Gungnir’s arrow free. 

Tai took a ready position on the next plate, pooling his aura in his legs to brace for the jolt. _We can do this._ “It’s gonna take a lot more than chance to break us up.”  The boy from the shuttle took the spot to his left, cape fluttering gently in the breeze.

Dan launched with a defiant shout, his mace unfolding as he soared out over the forest. Summer’s plate clicked, probably a safety being disengaged, and she slid her arrow into Tai’s hand a split second before vanishing.

Oh. OH! Why hadn’t he thought of—

WHAM.

It didn’t feel like being thrown, more like being slammed into from below—at least from how the force bounced around his aura—and then he was flying.

He bit down on the arrow, freeing his hands to land. The others had seemed to fly for an eternity, but now that it was his turn in the air, the ground was already getting closer at an alarming pace. Aiming for one of the taller oaks using the drag on his arms and legs to nudge himself on the right trajectory, he silently thanked Balt and Azraq for all the extra skydiving lessons at Signal.

Tai caught a thin branch in one gauntleted hand, pooling his aura down his entire arm to give him the strength to hold on and keep his shoulder from dislocating. The branch twisted him in toward the trunk like a ball on a string, finally breaking under the force—and grabbed another with his other hand, continuing his controlled spiral downward.

 _Nailed it_ , he thought, releasing the last branch and aiming to land on a wide branch near the base of the tree. The spikes on his boots bit into the wood as he dropped onto it, bending his knees to absorb his momentum—

CRACK.

_Oh, sh—_

WHAM.

He hit the forest floor in a heap, the impact knocking the wind clean out of him, and pain shot up his leg as his ankle twisted. The arrow fell from his mouth as he gasped for air, clutching at his foot. Praying it wasn’t broken. Praying there weren’t any Grimm nearby.

 _The arrow!_ If Summer activated it, he’d lose his lifeline—and as much as he hated to admit it...he might need rescuing now. 

What felt like an eternity later, he finally managed to shove himself into a sitting position. Arrow firmly clenched in his left hand, he turned his attention to his ankle.

 _Well, it doesn’t look broken, there’s one thing to be grateful for_. He tried to move it, a mistake that sent pain shooting through his whole foot. _Aura’s great for impacts...not so great for getting my foot twisted like that. And I was surprised by the fall._

He was a sitting duck in a forest full of Grimm, he couldn’t even walk—

“Okay.” Tai forced himself to keep breathing deeply, though he’d mostly caught his breath. “Okay. This happens. Real Huntsmen mess up.” He grabbed the branch that had broken under him and braced the end on the ground, pushing himself to a standing position. “Real Huntsmen get hurt.”

He glanced up at the tree. Luckily, the lowest branches weren’t _too_ low. He couldn’t fight like this, so his best option was to get somewhere out of reach. Grunting with pain, he limped over and tested his weight before hoisting himself up. 

“Real Huntsmen do _not_ panic,” he panted around the arrow, slowly and painfully dragging himself up, branch by branch, with one useless leg. “Real Huntsmen do _not_ draw the Grimm in while they can’t fight.”

About twenty feet up he sunk into a fork of the tree, almost as out of breath as he’d been after hitting the ground. “That’ll...have to be...good enough.” He wedged the arrow into the wood and held it there with both hands, leaning back against one of the branches to rest.

A camera was bolted to the trunk, just above him, swiveled down to stare him in the face. Of course. The professors had to observe them somehow.

Tai cursed, leaning forward against the other branch instead.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy with this chapter. It just came together, it's exactly what I wanted... hope you enjoyed too


	19. Summer—Half Cocked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm trapped at the DMV so here, have the chapter early

Landing was slightly trickier without the arrow. Summer slotted in the magazine of gravity Dust rounds and flicked out the footholds on Gungnir’s muzzle, planting her feet against them and pointing the rifle down at the forest floor below. The secondary handle slid from the other end at the press of a button, replacing the lost length.

The Dust detonated at the slightest brush of the trigger, slowing her descent but threatening to send her spiraling out of control. Summer took a moment to stabilize and fired again. And again. Six rounds later, she rolled to a stop on the forest floor, collapsing Gungnir back into a rifle and bringing it up to a ready position.

Without the arrow her options for close-quarters combat were limited. She needed to find Tai, and fast, but if she called the arrow too soon—before he landed and caught his breath—he could drop it and she’d lose him. She forced herself to count slowly to two hundred, eyes glued to the ground, listening for the sound of approaching Grimm or students.

 _Hope that’s long enough._ She glared at the rifle in her hands—the recall circuit wasn’t designed for small pulses, an oversight she was regretting now. Unless Summer wanted the gravity Dust to drag her a half mile, she’d have to manipulate it with her own aura. 

A tiny spark of bright white jumped from her fingers and sank into the receiver. Gungnir leapt in her hands like a dog on a leash, pulling to the left. At the other end, the arrow would have done the same. All they had to do was follow the pull and they’d find each other. Summer set off at a brisk walk that she could maintain for a few hours if need be, pulsing the Dust every minute or so, and each time the gun pulled back toward the cliffs. _He must not have flown as far. He’s a lot bigger than me._ It sucked to be going the wrong direction, but finding Tai quickly was the most important thing—

“Or the second-most important thing,” she amended, raising the rifle at the four Ursa waiting in the clearing she’d just stumbled into.  _BANG._

The first one cut off mid-roar, hitting the ground with a heavy thud as smoke streamed from the hole where an eye had been, but the others were charging now. Summer aimed and fired again, cracking the faceplate of another but failing to budge it from its course. Shot number three missed altogether.

“I don’t have time for this!” she shouted, slotting the gravity cartridge back in and planting the barrel into the ground. Another shot flung her into the air, over the heads of the confused Grimm, and the next finished the one with the cracked faceplate while propelling her safely into the top of a tree. A few branches whipped at her aura, but it was easy to get securely perched out of reach.

The last two circled the base of the trunk, rearing and clawing at the bark. It was too hard to line up a clear shot at their eyes through the foliage, and Ursa had notoriously thick skulls—she could waste all her ammunition and only piss them off.

“HEY! I THOUGHT YOU COULD CLIMB!” Summer shouted, kicking at the branch under her feet and making the whole thing shake like a fly in a spiderweb. _Wait, no, bad analogy. I want to **be** the spider._  _Or a fly with a gun that kills spiders._ “COME GET ME, MORONS!” 

One reared again, slamming its weight against the tree and sending her swaying alarmingly. She glared at the next tree over. There were maybe six rounds left of the gravity Dust, she couldn’t jump between trees forever.

“Ugh, what else do I have,” she muttered, checking her belt. Electric Dust could work, stun them long enough to put a shot into their faces, and she had plenty of that. Ugh. What she really needed was her _arrow._

The new magazine clicked home, and Summer took aim at the larger of the two bears. This didn’t need to be so precise, just needed to penetrate the Grimm’s thick hide—

“GYYYAHHH!”

The Grimm made a comical “Hungh?” sound, halting their assault on the tree and turning toward the source of the yell—the one Summer had been about to shoot reeled back at the sound of a gunshot, pawing at its face. Before it could recover, the student responsible pelted into view, slicing into the back of its neck as he vaulted easily over it. Summer turned on the smaller one, sinking the electric round into its pelt and sending it crashing, twitching, to the ground. 

The boy walked casually around the tree, cape swishing behind him—the Grimm twin from the shuttle again. He pointed the length of his sword at the thing’s face and sprayed it with buckshot. Probably hit _both_ eyes, but there was way too much smoke around Summer now for her to tell. Coughing, she quickly dropped branch to branch back to the forest floor and clean air.

“You okay?” the boy asked as she tried to catch her breath.

“Yeah. Lungful of Grimm smoke, y’know how it is,” she said, switching back to her regular ammunition. “Thanks for the help. I’m not carrying enough Dust for this nonsense.”

“Nice to see you again,” he said, somewhat nervously, offering his hand. “I’m Crow.”

“Wait, really?” she stared at him. Who in their right mind would name their kid Crow?—and then froze, realizing her mistake and dropping her eyes from his. “Oh, oh no—I’m supposed to find my friend—”

“Oh, I’m already partnered up!” he said, jerking his head over his shoulder at his sister, standing at the edge of the clearing with her arms folded and a sour expression. “Thanks for the _help_ , Raven.”

The girl’s scowl didn’t budge. “You had it handled.”

Oh. Raven and Crow. That made _some_ kind of sense.

“Well, thanks again.” Summer’s smile wobbled as she sparked Gungnir’s core again. Why hadn’t Tai found her yet? They couldn’t have landed that far apart. Gods, if this didn’t work she’d risked her life for no reason—

“Temple’s the other way,” Raven said.

“My friend’s this way. And he has my spearhead, so,  _really_ need to get that.”

“You’re running around here with half your weapon missing?”

“It’s the best way to find him,” Summer snapped. This was a waste of time.

“Well, we’ll help you,” Crow offered.

Both of them turned to stare at him, disbelieving.

“Crow, we have an _objective_.”

“It’s the blond guy, right? He launched right before I did, he can’t be far.”

Summer didn’t particularly like the idea of spending more time with Raven, but this was Grimm territory and she didn’t have the luxury of being picky with her allies. Squaring her shoulders and swallowing her discomfort, she nodded. “Well, I’d appreciate it. I’m not as good at close quarters with only half my spear.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: I figured out how to fix the numbering—use chapter titles instead! My beta @ranger-lcat and I particularly like "Lost Your Marbles"


	20. Raven—No Need to Get Personal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Glynda implied the relics are different each year, but...

Raven’s blood simmered as they followed the Huntress back the way they came, toward the cliffs, away from their goal. This was ridiculous, dangerous, _stupid_.

“I’m going to look ahead,” Summer said, folding down her rifle into a more compact cylinder and starting up a particularly tall tree. “I feel like we should have run into him by now.”

Raven waited until she was out of earshot to seize her brother’s wrist. “What is wrong with you?”

“I want to blend in, and that means making friends,” Qrow snapped back, with a nervous glance at her perch. “You can’t just sit in the corner and glare at everyone for four years, Ra—”

“ _Friends?”_ she breathed, squeezing his arm. This was exactly what she’d been afraid of—he wasn’t going to take this mission seriously, he wanted to pretend he was in one of his damn comic books. “Qrow. They would kill us and our _entire family_ if they knew who we are!”

“I think I see him!” Summer shouted, rifle scope pressed to her eye. She descended in a matter of seconds, dropping neatly out of the tree and running north. “TAI!”

Raven folded her arms. “Good. Now we can leave her.” 

Qrow completely ignored her, taking off after the girl. _Why_  wouldn’t he just _listen?_ She stomped along, determined to let him know what she thought of this idea even if she couldn’t speak freely in front of the Huntress.

“TAI!” 

The obnoxious, hyperactive, _deadly_ Huntress.

“Summer?” a male voice called faintly in response.

“TAI!” They emerged from the dense undergrowth into a clearer spot, one of the tallest trees around standing in its center and a blond Huntsman perched about twenty feet up. “Tai, what are you doing up there?”

“Messed up my landing, twisted my ankle, can’t walk. It’s been a great day so far. My aura’s been working on it though, so I can move it.”

“Well, look on the bright side. We’re partners again.”

“At least something’s going right today. Now we just need to find Dan.” He tossed something down to the girl before beginning a slow, tedious climb out of the tree.

“Want a lift?” Summer called.

“Not sure I could balance with one leg, but thanks.”

Raven turned back to her brother. “Let’s go.”

“We’re not leaving, he’s hurt.” He scowled at her, stepping toward them. “We found a road back that way. I’m Qrow, and the grumpy one is my sister.”

Now he was just trying to piss her off. “Raven.” 

“A road sounds great,” Tai said enthusiastically, one arm slung over each of their shoulders. She turned heel and stalked back the way they’d come, leaving the other three to follow if they could. 

After about a fifteen minutes’ walk, they reached Qrow’s original landing point. At least Raven hadn’t had to get launched, that was something. As soon as he’d disappeared into the canopy, she simply opened a portal and walked through.

Half an hour later stones began peeking out from between the trees in the distance—Ozpin’s temple. A tiny, broken stone circle, maybe the remains of a tower. Little statues stood on pedestals in a ring, undoubtedly the ‘relics’ they needed to retrieve.

This test was just as embarrassingly easy as the entrance exam had been. When were they going to start  _learning?_

“Let’s take a ten-minute break,” Summer suggested as Tai limped up the steps.

“Here you go,” he said, seizing a pair of figures shaped like little castle towers and tossing one to Qrow. He held up the matching piece and grinned. “Get it? A black rook?!” 

“Uh…no.” 

Summer groaned and punched him in the arm.

“Well, they’re chess pieces. And the castles are called rooks. Which is another word for a crow.”

“‘Cause explaining the joke makes it funnier,” she complained, flopping down on the steps next to him. “So, where in Anima are you from?”

“A bit south of Mistral.” Qrow sat down a few paces away, and Raven dropped onto a fallen stone to wait, letting her chin rest against her linked hands.

“Patch.” She pointed north, toward the Kingdom. “It’s a little island on the other side of Vale. We mostly get Beowolves there.”

“So you’re from outside the city?” Raven asked, focusing on the one thing about them that didn’t make her want to grab her brother and run.

“I mean, technically, but I’m sure it’s nothing like Anima! You both must have grown up fighting Grimm all the time.”

 _Not really._ Sure, there were small Grimm everywhere, but the tribe usually knew how to avoid the big ones. Huntsmen were the real threat.

Qrow just nodded and lied with a smile. “Pretty much.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I mean, they'd have to repeat eventually. You can't come up with game-based sets of objects forever. And I could totally see Oz dragging the ol' chess set out for nostalgia's sake the year team STRQ's kids enroll at Beacon.
> 
> Screw it, I just liked the pun


	21. Qrow—Check Your Attitude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
>  
> 
> [Holy cow, check out the sweet art my beta reader @ranger-lcat drew!!](https://ranger-lcat.tumblr.com/post/188288389389/cover-art-for-fire-the-headcanons-fanfiction)

Qrow was acutely aware of Raven’s silent fuming as they crept their way toward the cliffs. Conspicuously absent were any other students, but then, they weren’t dragging an injured person with them. Everyone else was probably back already.

“Coast is clear,” Summer declared, lowering her rifle. The other three shuffled forward, the twins supporting Tai as they followed her down yet another hill.

“Sorry,” Tai muttered again. Maybe Raven’s fuming wasn’t so silent. Qrow had to swallow an apology of his own for injuring his ankle in the first place. The last thing he needed was for the people at Beacon to turn on him the way the tribe had when he’d come of age.

This was the first opportunity he’d ever had to be free of his Semblance’s shadow and he would _not_  mess it up.

Something moved in the bushes to their right and Qrow didn’t even think, just pointed his sword and peppered the offending plant with buckshot.

“A little warning next time?!” Tai screeched, jumping at the sound and nearly tumbling from their grip. “…Oh no.”

Slowly, its tongue flicking out as it hissed in irritation, the biggest King Taijitu Qrow had ever seen raised its pale head from the undergrowth.

They’d seen twice the amount of Grimm since finding Tai, and he had a decent idea what was drawing them in. “Raven, will you check your attitude already?!” he shouted, blasting the thing’s face and neck repeatedly.

“Will _you_ stop pissing it off?!” She pulled her sword from its sheath and sliced at its belly in one fluid motion. The blade failed to make an impression on its armored scales, and it swatted her aside as it struck down at Tai and Qrow.

Tai shouted, planting his good foot and throwing his entire body forward in a solid right hook that slammed into the snake’s nose. It reeled back, and he nearly slid out of Qrow’s grip, unable to catch himself on his bad foot. Summer sprang to his defense, jabbing at one of its eyes with her spear.

“LOOK OUT!” Raven screeched, a moment before Qrow’s legs were swept out from under him and both boys tumbled to the path. The second head had joined the fray, even as the first snapped at Summer.

The black half struck again, trying to swallow him whole—he angled the massive broadsword, and the thing’s jaws closed on the blade. It pulled back again, smoke pouring from its mouth. Tai clutched its neck, his twisted ankle doing nothing to stop him winding his arms and legs around its middle and squeezing the life out of it. _Wow, he’s strong._

“Hold on!” Qrow shouted, attacking its belly. He _might_ could cut through those scales with a recoil shot, but his new sword could only fire in one damn direction.

“Aim for its eyes!” Summer said.

“I might hit Tai!”

“Then switch!” She leapt past him and he sprang for the head that was swinging down to smack into Raven. His overhead strike slammed its head away and into the ground with an echoing crack. She jumped forward, slashing at the eyes on one half of its face, and Qrow angled his shotgun at the other side before pulling the trigger. It reared back, blinded and furious.

He jumped, swinging the blade into its open maw and cutting into the soft flesh at the corners of its mouth. Raven portaled next to him, onto its head and stabbed an eye—going right through the socket into whatever it passed for a brain. The white head went limp, trailing smoke, and fell to the forest floor with a heavy _thud_.

The black half was only partially blind, but Summer had seen what Raven did. With a furious cry, she leapt onto its head, planted her spear head in a ruined eye and fired the rifle. The recoil drove the point straight through and out the eye socket on the other side.

“Ew,” Tai said, sliding off the thing’s neck and down onto the ground.

“I can’t get it out,” Summer spluttered, yanking on the stock with both hands.

“Eh, it’ll dissolve in a minute or so.”

“So, the coast is clear, huh?” Raven asked.

Qrow scowled at her. “Lay off.”

“At least we’re almost there.” Summer looked up at the towering cliffs. Their shadow was probably what had hidden the snake from her view in the first place.

“Climbing that’s gonna be a pain in the ass,” Raven groused. 

Summer tilted her head, a hand still on the handle of her weapon. “Well, I can carry one person up at a time. If you want.” The spear finally came free with another yank.

Raven glared at her, but there was less menace in the expression now. “…If you take Qrow up there, I can teleport Tai and myself to him.”

“Really?” Summer asked, her eyes widening. Wow, her irises could _really_ catch the light, even in the dim shadows of the cliffs. “That’s the coolest Semblance _ever._ ”

“Well what can _you_ do?”

“…I haven’t found my Semblance yet.”

“Well, neither has my brother so I’m sure you’ll get along _fine,_ ” Raven snapped. “Let’s just get out of here, please?”

“Yeah, okay, calm down,” Summer muttered under her breath, yanking the point of her spear and about a foot of its shaft from the back end of the rifle and sliding it into the barrel. Was it some kind of harpoon gun? “It’s not like I was giving you a compliment or anything.” Tai and Raven probably didn’t hear.

“Wait, if you don’t have a Semblance, how are you going to—” Qrow cut off as she fired the rifle and the half-spear shot out like a giant arrow, little stabilizer fins springing out at its end as it arced up to the top of the cliff.

“Hold on tight!” she shouted, tapping the muzzle of the rifle on the ground and grabbing his waist. White sparks flashed around her hand and lines on the reciever glowed a deep violet in response.

“WhaAAAAAA—” They shot violently upward, gaining speed as the stone streaked past. Qrow clutched the tiny Huntress with every ounce of panic-induced strength he had.

“WHOOHOO!” Summer screeched.

They sailed right past the arrow, into open air above the clifftop. Summer turned the rifle and fired three more shots, using the recoil to drive them safely over the edge before releasing Qrow. He pushed away in response, and the two of them rolled to a stop on the soft grass.

He flopped onto his side with a groan, stomach was still flying.

“You dropped this,” Raven said, planting his sword into the ground in front of his face.

“Okay, but—that _is_ a really cool Semblance,” Tai offered, also flopping down to take the weight off his foot.

“Sorry, I forget how much it takes to get used to Gungnir,” Summer said, giving Qrow a hand up.

“Your spear…” Qrow glanced over the weapon, folded down and hanging from her belt. It was all red and black, except for that little dark button on the side that was ever so slightly purple with the gleam of gravity Dust. “It’s like Life and Death!”

Summer’s shriek of delight completely drowned out Raven’s confused squawk. “You know the _Grimm Reaper_ comics?!”

“Oh gods, there’s two of you,” Tai groaned.

 


	22. Taiyang—A ROOK-ie Mistake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! This is a long one, but I really wanted all of this from Tai's POV. I like to think Summer was the leader, but Tai was the glue that kept the other three from killing each other, especially in the beginning. I love Tai's emotional intelligence in the show

" _Where the hell were you?_ " 

The drone of Ozpin's voice lecturing the assembled students on the importance of flexibility, resilience and teamwork with unlikely allies barely masked Dan's angry words.

"In a tree with a sprained ankle," Tai hissed back. "Where were you?"

"I headed to the temple and waited for you! For like an hour!"

"Well, you were gone when we got there." He could stand on his own now, at least that was something, but his leg throbbed and healing had eaten through a good chunk of his aura. _How do you always have enough energy to get angry?_ The last thing he needed right now was an argument. 

"Tiffany Sativum, Robin Dickinson, Tan Jack, and Lisera Madder, please come to the stand." Two partnerships stepped forward, one from the edge of the crowd of new students and the other pushing their way from the middle. In the stands above, the upperclassmen clapped politely. "The four of you retrieved the white pawn pieces during your trial. From this day forward, you will work as team TRTL, led by Tiffany Sativum."

Tai's heart sank as Summer seized his arm. " _He's using the relics to put the teams together?_ "

"Which one did you two take?" Dan demanded.

Tai swallowed, trying to clear the sudden foul taste from his mouth. "A black rook." The next pair of partners took the stage, the hapless owners of the black pawns.

"Dammit, I had a white knight!" He glared up at Ozpin standing on the stage. "This is a stupid way to form teams!"

"Maybe Crow put the piece down," Summer muttered, rising on tiptoes to search the crowd. The Taupe twins were on the opposite side, and they appeared to be arguing.

Tai sighed, deeply. "He did not."

"Oh, no. Oh _no…_ "

 _Couldn't have said it better myself_ . Crow seemed nice enough, if a little weird—a cape? _Really?_ —but Raven was weird and…prickly.

"Don't like your new teammates?" Dan asked, voice still taut with anger.

"She's a bad-mannered Grimm magnet!"

Harsh. But true. "Well, look on the bright side. Ozpin _probably_ won't make her the team leader."

"At least you have someone you know on your team," Dan complained. Across the field, the twins had abandoned arguing in favor of glaring at the ground with identical scowls and folded arms. 

Absolutely nobody was happy with this, huh? Time to lighten the mood. Tai grinned, making sure he had both of their attention, and shrugged. "And, y'know. They're not unattractive."

Summer glared at him. "Godsdammit, Tai."

Ozpin cut her off, calling the next group to the stand, and Dan stepped closer as she focused once again on the stage.

"Careful, I might get jealous," Dan teased, quietly enough she wouldn't hear.

"Shhh." Tai elbowed him. "Unless you want to tell Summer now?"

"You're no fun."

At last, Ozpin made it to the rooks. As the newly formed team CIMN "Cinnamon"—that was a bit of a stretch, even for Ozpin—Tai and Summer started pushing forward.

"Taiyang Xiao Long, Summer Rose, Crow Taupe, and Raven Taupe. You retrieved the black rook pieces." A few of the upperclassmen whooped and shouted as they stepped forward, and Tai's cheeks burned with embarrassment. How many people knew how badly he'd messed up?

 _And now we're going to be teammates with Crow and Raven for four years._ He glanced up at the screen where their pictures were arranging themselves in order, a letter fading into view under each face. S, T, R, —Q? What? How did he spell his name? Qrow? Qurow?

And then the four of them were lined up onstage under their photos, and Ozpin was smiling down at them despite their obvious discomfort."From this day forward you will work together as team STRQ, led by Summer Rose."

She sucked in a nervous breath through her teeth, with only a half-glance at Raven. Oh. Of course, the only thing that could potentially be more difficult than being on a team where Raven was leader… was leading the team Raven was on.

Although, she didn't look like she wanted to start a fight. For once. More like relieved—both the twins were. _They're so weird._

They retreated gratefully from the stage and returned to their seats, clapping along with the rest of the school as Ozpin introduced the last few teams, and then they were free to leave.

"Well…" Summer began, but trailed off immediately.

Tai yawned. "I'm exhausted. Is anybody else exhausted?" 

"Probably because of your aura healing you," Raven said, quietly. After so many harsh words the softer tone was almost jarring, but _anyone_ would know _that_ . Was she trying to get under his skin? Again? _Why?_

He certainly wasn't going to rise to it. "Uh…yeah…"

"…You knew that already," she muttered, staring at the ground. A few yards away Professor Lionheart called everyone to pick up their things and go to Dorm B.

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry," she said, still not making eye contact. "I was… impatient, in the forest. I didn't realize we'd be working together …I don't want to make trouble."

Oh. She was trying to be nice? Tai scratched at the back of his neck, somehow even more uncomfortable. The next four years were going to be all flavors of interesting.

"Well, let's start over." Summer said, offering her hand for Raven to shake. Tai had known her forever, could tell she was just as uneasy, but also knew she was willing to recognize when someone was making an effort. "I'm Summer Rose. It's nice to meet you."

"Raven Taupe," she replied with a small smile. "You too."

Summer smiled, only a little forced, and swiped Tai's bag from his hands to sling it over her shoulder with her own. "Come on, let's go find our room." she said, rushing a few steps ahead.

"She really thought Ozpin was gonna make one of _us_ leader?" Qrow muttered under his breath, one eyebrow raised. Tai stifled a snort, trying not to glance at Raven, but she was just nodding with her mouth pressed into a thin line.

Their room was on the second floor, near the end of the hall. A piece of paper had been taped to the door with STRQ scrawled in large, neat letters. "Home sweet home," Summer muttered nervously, pushing her way in. Four beds took up most of the space, with a couple feet between each. Two desks were crammed side-by-side in the middle, under the window, and as they filed in they found the other two pressed against the wall on either side of the door.

No curtains around the beds or for dividing up the room. "…Not real big on privacy, are they," Tai said. The dorms at Signal had been co-ed, but not _this_ co-ed.

"Ugh, I _hate_ getting used to a new mattress," Summer complained, flopping down on one of the beds against the wall. The twins immediately moved to claim the two at the other end of the room, leaving Tai with the one next to her—well, he was perfectly fine with that. He dropped his bag at the foot of the bed and started digging through it. Soap, towel, change of clothes, detergent, toothbrush…

"I'm gonna shower," Tai said, tossing the bundle over his shoulder. "I feel like I have bugs crawling all over me from that stupid tree."

 

*     *     *

"Dude, are you okay? You've been in there for like…forty minutes." Tai called tentatively. He didn't have his scroll, but Qrow had gotten in the shower while he was still trying to get his boot off his injured foot. He'd massaged his ankle, showered, and started a load of laundry since then.

The water switched off almost instantly. "I'm fine!"

Tai just shook his head and began to brush his teeth. _Are these two really this weird or is this culture shock?_ he asked his reflection. _I mean, we were eight when we moved to Vale. I don't remember Anima that well, and it's a huge place._ In truth he couldn't even remember exactly where they'd lived…Ayame was closer to Mistral than not, right? And Qrow had said they weren't too far from there either.

The metallic _clink_ of something metal hitting the porcelain a couple sinks down jolted him out of his thoughts. Qrow was now wearing a shapeless T-shirt and drawstring pants that Tai could only describe as dingy—faded colors, thin fabric. He'd tossed his combat gear into a sink and was filling it with water. 

Tai spat, rinsing his toothbrush. "What are you doing?" 

Qrow froze, hands dripping with soap. "…Laundry…?"

"There's a machine free," Tai gestured at the wall of washers next to the door. Actually there were several open.

"…Never used one before," he muttered, continuing to scrub.

"Oh." Tai blinked. They'd had a washer growing up, but Ayame was a relatively large town. Not everyone in the reigon had reliable Dust power outside the cities. "Uh… you can use my detergent…?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, what are teammates for?"

Qrow grabbed his stuff from the sink, trying to wring it out a little but still getting plenty of water on the floor, and shoved it into the washer. "Can I ask Raven if she has anything?"

"Sure!" He hoped the cheerfulness in his voice didn't sound as strained to Qrow as it did to him. Once his new teammate had vanished into the hallway, the forced smile slid from his face as Tai's head dropped into his hands. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

"You're telling me."

His head snapped up—but it was just Dan. "You're on our floor?"

"Best news I've heard all day."  He wrapped his arms around Tai's waist, pulling him close. "I thought he'd never leave."

"He's just getting more stuff to wash," Tai mumbled, letting his head rest on Dan's shoulder. He was so tired.

"How's your ankle?"

"Hurts if I step on it too hard or move it too much." Dan let him go, and he jumped up backwards so he could sit on the counter and get his weight off it.

"I'm glad you're okay. Sorry I got so heated in the auditorium. I just really wanted the three of us to stay a team."

"Speaking of which, when can we tell Summer we—" Tai broke off as Qrow walked back in. "Got it?"

"Yeah, thanks," he said, tossing a small pile of red, black, and gray-brown into the machine. Tai hopped off the counter and started to measure out the detergent.

"Uh, hi, I'm Qrow Taupe."

"Dan Effeuiller."

Tai squinted down into the washer. Even with both the twins' clothes, it was barely half full—and the only color in the pile came from their battle gear. Most of their things were the same drab grays, browns, and off-whites in various states of well-worn.

"Actually, I think this is silk," he said, reaching in to pull Raven's sash out. "This _does_ need to be handwashed—"

"Did you _steal clothing_ from a _female student?!_ " Tai jumped about a foot as an older boy yanked it from his hands, face purple under a golden blond mustache.

"I-It's my sister's," Qrow stammered.

"Oh." The mustache twitched. "Right you are. My apologies, Mister Taupe. I am Peter Port, the floor supervisor. I'm also a TA for Grimm Studies. Though…this is not how I wanted to make an introduction."

"You know us already?" Tai asked.

"Indeed I do, Mr. Xiao Long," he said. "Fortune favors the prepared! If there is anything you need, my door is at the end of the hall. I'll be seeing you all in class tomorrow!"

They breathed a collective sigh of relief as the TA left the room. "Anyway, uh, use warm water unless the clothes say not to on the label…" All their clothes looked very handmade. "And make sure you use the Dust-enhanced setting on your combat gear, it'll make it last longer."

"What happens if you wash silk in there?" Qrow asked, glancing at the sash.

Tai rolled his eyes. "Summer hits you for ruining her cosplay." That had been a fun day, when her Grimm Reaper cloak had come out of the wash all rippled and bubbly. 

"Uh…" Qrow clearly didn't get it. "Okay. Thanks. I hate doing laundry."

He snorted. "Anyone would if you had to do it all by hand!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Qrow: Fortune favors the people at the other end of the hall from me. Sorry, Tai.
> 
> So, I finally got my outline all neat and completed. Check out that chapter count, 89. And THAT'S assuming there isn't another Prologue Incident where 4 chapters becomes 12


	23. Summer—Do You Want to Get Stabbed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the chapter count slowly grows. Ninety-one, this'll be fun.
> 
>  **Patch Notes:**  
>  Tai’s chapter titles are now _attempts_ at puns.
> 
> Professor Diana Miller is now Professor Zelenia Mesánychta (pronounced Meh-saan-eek-ta, it’s Greek).  
> Boy did I not read the Wikipedia page on Baker-Miller pink before using it. Freaking WEIRD. It was supposed to be a throwaway name for a background character, but she’s suddenly becoming more important to the plot so I’m giving her a real name/color/allusion/etc. Basically the only thing that isn't changing is her personality :_)

“Should we wake him?” Summer asked, glancing between Tai and their new teammate. Qrow lay curled in a tight ball on the floor next to his bed, cocooned in a blanket. 

Tai shrugged. “I dunno. He _looks_ happy.”

“They’re both gonna miss breakfast.” Raven had also slept through their alarm somehow and was still sprawled face-down on her pillow. Maybe. Hard to tell where her face was under all that hair.

“So we’ll bring them some fruit or something. Come on, Dan’s waiting for us.”

“I guess,” Summer muttered, pulling on her hoodie and following him from the room. 

The mess hall stood at one edge of the cluster of dormitory buildings, along the wide central path that cut to the heart of the school. Through the massive windows they could see it was already packed with a mix of students wearing pajamas, uniforms, or creative blends of the two.

“Starting to think you weren’t going to show again,” Dan said, straightening up from where he’d been leaning against the stone.

“Hilarious.”

“How was your first night with the birdbrains?” he asked. Tai snorted, grinning. “Hey, maybe if we build a scarecrow they’ll fly away home to Anima a little faster.”

“Ehh, say what you want,” Tai said, pulling the door open and stepping aside to let them though, “they can really fight.”

“Won’t change anything if they can’t read.”

 _Oh, come on._ Summer rolled her eyes at Dan’s back. _Qrow was reading a textbook when we met him—_

“HEY! IT’S THE CHEATERS!”

She froze mid-thought as several of the older students leapt to their feet, shouting over the noisy cafeteria. Some banged their empty glasses on the table or jumped up on the benches, and all of them were staring at the three of them and grinning like maniacs.

“What is happening.” She twitched, considering running back outside where things made sense, but finally some of what they were shouting started to filter through.

“Hey, nice trick yesterday!”

“That was some quick thinking, Reaper girl!”

Oh no, someone had recognized her weapon. It was kind of flattering to be compared to her hero… But on the other hand she’d hoped to shake the comics-obsessed fangirl image she’d kinda gotten stuck with at Signal. _Well, **that** dream lasted less than a day—_

“Nobody from our year managed to get around Ozpin’s ‘partners at first sight’ rule.” The boy who spoke didn’t look like a second-year. More like a giant. But the Professor hadn’t been at Beacon any longer than that, so he had to be. “You and those Taupe kids were definitely the crowd favorites. Your spear runs on gravity Dust?”

“Y-yeah—”

“You were watching?” Dan asked.

The boy grinned. “You firsties spend your first day of school running around in the woods being chased by Grimm. The rest of us get to kick back and spend it watching you.” 

Tai groaned, dropping his head into his hands.

“Hey, don’t be like that.” They put a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, it sucked that you got hurt, but like you said— even pro Huntsmen mess up, but they don’t panic. You did everything perfectly. Everyone has a little bad luck now and then.”

Tai stammered his thanks and the sophomore headed off toward the food line.

“...Can’t help feeling like maybe yesterday was a lot of bad luck,” Summer muttered. _How on Remnant does Ozpin expect me to lead this team? Dan was supposed to be leader. Well, I guess he still is but he was supposed to be **our** leader._

“You gave Tai half of Gungnir?”

“Uh. Yeah…”

“Huh.” The sound was sharp and bitter, like a rusted knife across the tongue. “Good move.” 

_What, did you expect me to give it to you? Tai’s… family._

They got food and, without having to say a word, drifted to an unoccupied table at the edge of the room away from other students.

“Well, crap,” Tai sighed, grabbing the hot cocoa off his tray. “So...Where’s the rest of your team?”

“Wanted to sleep in,” Dan said around a mouthful of pancake. “We may have, uh, raided the kitchen for snacks before bed. Important team building exercise. What’d you do last night?”

Summer swallowed a bite of fruit, eager to talk about something else. “Filled some new gravity rounds. I nearly ran out yesterday.”

He looked expectantly at Tai, who sighed again, deeper than before. “...Taught Qrow how to use a washing machine.”

 _Aaaaand we’re back._ She speared a piece of watermelon, wishing they could get a do-over of the previous day.

“Unbelievable,” Dan muttered, leaning against him and pressing his face into his neck. Tai went completely rigid, and Summer’s mind went blank.

“Dude!”

“What? I thought you wanted to tell Summer.”

She blinked, something in her stomach turning over. “...Tell me what…?”

“Uh…” Tai’s face was a nasty shade of gray. “Dan and I…”

“We’ve been dating for a couple weeks now. We’re talking it slow, since Zaff just left.”

It felt like a punch to the face. They were _what?_  

_Now??_

—She was staring at them open-mouthed. “Uh. I’m happy for you!” Summer forced a smile and hurriedly attacked her hash browns.

 _Tai,_ _what the **hell** are you **thinking?!**  Dan? Our friend? Who **just** broke up with our OTHER FRIEND?_ And when Dan and Zaff were together, they were together. She hadn’t spent nearly as much time with either of them. But they’d been happy… and she’d had Tai.

_…Please don’t leave me alone with the Taupes._

They ate in awkward silence, trying to avoid eye contact with the rest of the school. The food seemed to curdle in her stomach—this was a worse start to the year than she could have ever imagined.

“Uniforms!” Summer jumped about a foot, but it was just a teacher. “Hello again, Mr. Xiao Long.”

“Hi, Peter,” Tai said. “He’s a TA and our floor monitor. We, uh, met last night. Large, please.”

“Yes, my apologies again,” Peter blustered, handing the boys paper satchels. “Where is Mr. Taupe this morning?” _If he’s smart, still unconscious._ “No matter. Could you take one for him? Hmm. I’d hazard a guess at medium.”

“Sure.” Tai accepted the packet, and he moved on to the next table of pajama-clad first years.

It only took a few more minutes for the other TA to arrive with the girls’. “Extra- _extra_ -small?” Summer asked hopefully. 

She dug around on the bottom shelf and finally emerged with a rumpled package. Summer beamed, taking it. “Thanks!” Maybe she wouldn’t have to alter something for once—she hadn’t exactly packed her sewing machine and it would mean a trip home. 

“Hey, we need a couple for our teammates,” Tai blurted, gesturing between himself and Dan. “Raven and, uh, Robin are probably both mediums, right?”

The TA just shrugged. Summer leaned over the table to whisper as she left. “What are you up to?”

“Let’s give the Taupes an old-fashioned Vale welcome,” Tai said, carefully unfolding the paper around Qrow’s clothes and swapping all of the pants with ‘Robin’s’ skirts. “After all, kilts are _very_ traditional.”

Summer stared. “Do you want to get stabbed? Because this is how you get Raven to stab you.”

“That’s why I’m not pranking _her_.”

 


	24. Qrow—I'll Take Your Word For It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Ruby's birthday. Summer's favorite holiday. Volume 7 starts the day after tomorrow. I've got two months' buffer. NaNoWriMo is about to start. 
> 
> And we're at the Kilt Incident. 
> 
> The planets have aligned. Have an extra chapter this week.

Qrow jolted awake with a shout, banging his knee on the bedframe, and Summer sprang back with a look of alarm. Behind her, Raven glared down at him through her hair.

"Sorry," she said, hand still outstretched from tapping his shoulder.

"I-I'm fine," he stammered, rubbing at his leg.

"Did you fall out of bed?"

Qrow forced a smile. "Must've." 

He'd meant to wake up earlier than Summer and Tai, get back into bed before they noticed him on the floor. The mattress had been just as uncomfortable as he'd thought it'd be. But the floor was level, with no rocks…

…and now Raven was pissed at him.

"O-Okay—"

"Uniforms!" Tai shouted, and a wrapped parcel flew right over Raven's bed to drop onto Qrow's foot. A second one smacked into Raven's shoulder and plopped into her lap. "You slept through breakfast, but we brought you some food, too." 

"Thanks," Qrow said, avoiding eye contact as he ripped open the parcel. "…I think this is yours, Raven." 

"No, the girls' uniforms have blouses." Summer gestured at the frilly shirt she wore over her pajama pants.

"Yeah, it's a kilt," Tai said. "They're an old Vale tradition, everyone wears them."

"Oh. Okay." Qrow dug through the rest of the bundle. _There's like five sets of clothes in here. Are we really going to need so many? Why?_

"We promised Dan we'd meet him before class. We'll see you there," Tai said, grabbing his own uniform and bag and running out still in his pajamas. Summer followed, pulling her hoodie on over her jacket, and waving as she disappeared through the door.

"What were you thinking?" Raven hissed, moving to the edge of the bed so she could glare at him properly.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep –"

"Neither could I." She stared at her knees. "…I didn't think we'd be this…  _close_ to the Huntsmen." Her eyes flicked toward Summer and Tai's beds. "I'm not sure we can do this, Qrow. We—we don't know enough to blend in."

"But we don't have to," Qrow said. "We're not pretending to be Huntsmen, we're pretending to be farmers that _want_ to be Huntsmen. I… I really think this is going to work."

"Do you trust them?" 

Did he? …Probably a little more than he should. "I don't know."

"They're not the heroes in your comic books, Qrow."

"I know that—"

"Real people only let you down."

"They…" he swallowed. Summer and Tai were exactly how he'd imagined Huntsmen-in-training would be. They were _just_ like the people in the comic books.  _He_ was the impostor. "…They seem nice."

"Only because they don't know us."

The two of them ate in silence. Qrow, at least, didn't want to talk about it any more. They'd nearly finished when his scroll lit up, a message from Summer. _Where are you?_ "We'd better get going or we'll be late."

Raven didn't look any happier, but let it go. It took Qrow a second to figure out the tie, but at least it was the clip-on kind. He could tie plenty of knots… for rigging a tent. 

"We _really_ need to go," Raven said, looking at her scroll.

"Stupid thing, I set an alarm this morning," Qrow muttered, tucking his own into his jacket pocket. The kilt didn't seem to have any.

"Figure it out later."

The two of them practically ran to the Grimm Studies building—the walks were deserted, everyone was in class already. How had they messed this up so badly?

"This is it," Raven hissed, pushing the door open a crack. The classroom was a miniature auditorium—all the students' seats sat on raised steps that got higher and higher toward the back of the room, allowing everyone a good view of the floor.

Which was what they had stumbled out into. Every single person stared.

"S-sorry we're late…" Qrow stammered. The teacher glared at the two of them, hand frozen on the chalkboard halfway through writing _Professor Mesán_ —. Peter Port stood just behind her, turning a familiar shade of purple as he backed out the opposite door. The other students whispered, some coughing or laughing.

Raven seized his wrist, pulling him back, but he couldn't move. Did they give themselves away somehow? Was Port going to get the police? She tugged his arm again, more insistently. This had been a bad idea. She was right, they couldn't blend in—

" _Qrow_ ," Raven breathed, tugging on his arm one more time.

They were caught, but he couldn't move. Raven could only take them to Vanta, straight back to the tribe. He couldn't move. He couldn't move—

Tai burst out laughing, hands on his head as he collapsed over the desk. Summer's hand flashed with a bright light—no, she was holding a camera. More of the students joined the laughter.

The professor sighed, lowering her face into the hand that wasn't holding chalk. "Detention, Mister Xiao Long, Miss Rose," she said wearily before looking back at the twins. "Please take a seat, you two. You'll have time to change after class, young man." She turned back to the board and finished writing  _—ychta._

"You got it, Professor Mesánychta," Tai said, flashing her a smile and a thumbs-up.

Qrow felt a dizzying wave of relief. They hadn't been found out, Tai had been lying. Sure enough, as they climbed up to sit next to their teammates Tai was wearing pants.

"We… we waited outside the room, but you took forever to come out," Summer whispered in between gasps for breath. "I'm so sorry—I tried to text you—"

"No, that was pretty funny," Qrow lied, his heart still racing.

"Real people only let you down," Raven breathed, too quietly for their teammates to hear.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was funnier in hindsight.
> 
> # Who's ready for Volume 7?
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	25. Raven—Coping Mechanisms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Sexual harrassment

"So kilts aren't actually a Vale thing?"

"No! Well, yes, but only if you're from Vytal. …I think some of their private schools might have kilts in their uniforms? But it's not something the rest of Vale does."

"They are kinda cool, though," Summer said, turning her camera over in her hands again. "Ugh, why isn't it working?!"

"Karma," Qrow said, taking a sip of his coffee.

Raven picked through the unfamiliar greens of her salad. The food here was so… elaborate. Which wasn't really a bad thing, except right now her stomach still churned. Seven hours later.

She'd felt Qrow shaking when she tried to pull him away, knew he had been scared too. Now he laughed and joked with them as if it hadn't happened.

How did he do it? She _still_ wanted to run.

"I'm sorry," Summer said yet again, setting her camera back in her bag. "We really didn't mean for you to walk into class like that."

"He's not the one who got detention on the first day." Raven's hand tightened on her fork as their friend dropped his tray on the table next to them, almost spilling whatever unnaturally orange liquid was in his glass. 

"Hey, Dan, what's up?" Tai asked.

"Still wondering why we're not on a team together," Dan complained, punching Tai on the arm. "Look at you, running off with the first couple of cute girls you see." He looked directly at Qrow, who stared down at his plate and said nothing.

"Har har," Tai said, shoving him back. "I'm not breaking up with you, if that's what you're asking." He rose out of his seat enough to give Dan a quick kiss.

"I'm just surprised you managed to get in trouble with Professor Mesánychta on the second day. Just like old times, huh?"

"Yeah, well, we didn't mean for it to go that far."

Dan ran his hand over Qrow's shoulder, down his side, pressing into the small of his back as he smiled down at him. "What's wrong, sweetheart? I thought you looked lovely." Smiling like a wolf looks at a lost lamb, or Sanguin eyed the farmers' daughters. Qrow jerked back, stiffening. Had they been at home the correct response would have been to twist his arm until he begged or it broke—Raven nearly went for the Huntsman's elbow joint with her fork. Nearly.

" _Knock it_ off _,_ Dan." Tai reached around him to wrench his hand away from Qrow and he stepped back, holding his arms up.

"I'm just messing with him a little, come on," Dan grinned again. "Lunch tomorrow?"

"Sure. I'll meet you in the courtyard."

And again, it was over as if nothing had happened. Except for Qrow's fists clenched under the table, Raven's palm aching where the handle of the fork pressed too hard against it.

"Don't take him personally," Summer said. "His partner from Signal didn't make it into Beacon, he's been sour about it for months."

Tai nodded. "Yeah, he gets carried away sometimes but he'll cut it out if you tell him off. …So, what should we do tonight?"

"Yeah, first day of classes! I heard there's gonna be a party in the courtyard."

Raven's ears perked up at the word 'party' until reality set in. Alcohol was illegal under the age of twenty-one in Vale. 

…She'd kill for a drink right now.

"We, uh, have a lot of history homework," Qrow said. Which was true, though she had been planning on ignoring it. What was the point? Dead people weren't going to make her a better warrior, she wasn't Bones.

"Awww," Summer whined. "Well, give us a call if you finish early and we can meet up!"

"Sounds great." Qrow forced a smile as they walked off with their empty trays. He and Raven waited until they had vanished through the hall's doors—and then without a word stood, ditched their own dishes, and headed back to the dorm.

The building was reassuringly quiet, deserted. Most students were headed the other way, to the courtyard party. By the time they reached the stairwell, the babble of voices outside had faded too, leaving them alone with the low drone of the Dust lights.

They still didn't speak until their door was securely closed.

Qrow set his books on his chair and flopped down on the bed, sprawling out with a deep sigh.

Her hands tightened on the strap of her own school bag. "Qrow. We can't do this."

"We have to."

"We stick out too much. Maybe we _are_ pretending to be farmers, but if we keep drawing this much attention –"

"They don't see us as a threat," Qrow said, sliding back to his feet and moving to his closet to rummage through the bag tossed in the bottom. "They think we're stupid or weak. We can use that. Attention isn't a bad thing if it's distracting them from the truth." He straightened up, a particularly old shirt clenched in his fist.

"What's that?"

"A risk, I know." He rolled his eyes as he tipped it back, and Raven caught a whiff of something strong and familiar. He winced with a grin, holding it out. "Vanta's moonshine."

She snatched the flask, drinking in turn. _Gods_ she needed this right now.

"Not too much," Qrow warned. "Summer and Tai could be back any time."

"…Right."

After a couple more sips she handed it back to him, and he put it back in its spot in the bottom of his duffel. He grabbed a clean set of clothes before closing the closet door. "I'm gonna shower. If you need me, shout into the men's room."

"We were sitting at desks all day. Just wash up." She flopped down on her own bed, reaching one hand under her jacket to unhook her bra. Instant relief.

"Have you even tried it yet?"

She exhaled sharply. "Standing naked in a room full of other women is not my idea of a relaxing evening."

"No one else is here. Come on, it's nice."

Her eyes narrowed. "Fine." She snapped her own closet open and grabbed her knife. As soon as he had gone, she dove into his closet and snuck one more drink before heading to the bathroom.

 


	26. Summer—To Keep You Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't fix the date when I posted it!!! Again!!! It's like the only negative of AO3, not being able to schedule posts...

"Welcome to Forging!" Professor Eitri shouted, instantly killing the students' chatter. "And, yes, I hear it every year. 'But Professor Eitri, we already made our weapons!' First off, call me Carmine. Second: who can tell me why you're here?"

Summer glanced at Qrow. Space marines didn't seem like his thing, but maybe—she leaned in and whispered under her breath, "It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it?" 

He snorted, glancing at her with a quick grin before returning his attention to the teacher.

"To kill Grimm!" someone shouted from the back.

"WRONG!" Carmine shouted, making a few students close by jump. "Every other class in this school is designed to make you better warriors. THIS class is designed solely to keep you alive!" _That_ got everyone's attention. "If your weapon malfunctions in the field, you're dead. SO! Who's done their maintenance this week?"

About half the class raised their hands—Summer noted with some satisfaction that her whole team were among them. Even if the twins grew up in the wilds and were pretty much guaranteed to have good habits.

Carmine glared at the students that were avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry, didn't you all fight during initiation? This isn't combat school, kids, this is a Huntsman Academy. We're not in Vale anymore. Grimm have been known to attack Beacon on occasion." A few anxious mutters broke out, and Carmine grinned wider. "Don't worry, nobody's died in years.  _Because they did their maintenance!_ Weapons on your workstation, hands off. If you haven't done it by now, it's too late!" 

Summer extended her spear and set it on the workbench, at an angle so it almost fit.

"Now, I'm going to walk around to each of you. Read chapter one of your textbooks while you wait your turn." She turned to the nearest table—theirs. "Lovely to meet you, Miss…"

"Rose," she said as Professor Carmine picked up her weapon. "And that's Gungnir."

"A spear, eh?" she collapsed and re-extended it, stepping back to twirl it and test the weight. "Well-balanced despite the uneven mass along the shaft, that must've been tricky. What's this for?" she asked, flicking the arrowhead open a couple times, and it clicked loudly each time it sprang closed.

"I can fire the spearhead out of the rifle like a harpoon with custom Dust cartridges. The point splits and digs into whatever it hit, and retracts when I press this button here." She pointed near the trigger.

Carmine popped out the arrow and sighted down the shaft, flicking at the little fins. "Gravity Dust core. Another Grimm Reaper fan, I see."

Summer's face grew warm in a way that had nothing to do with the heat of the forge. "I-it seemed like a good idea."

"Are you kidding? I saw you use it out on the cliffs." She folded it up and replaced it on the bench. "And using the gravity round to get through the King Taijitu's skull. Clever move. I can see you're good at thinking on your feet."

Summer's face grew even hotter as she realized the Professor was referring to their… _exploitation_ of Ozpin's rule. She refused to think of it as cheating. "T-thanks."

"Make sure you can switch rounds quickly. That'll help you get through some tough hides." She turned to Tai, sliding one of his gauntlets onto her own hand. "And you, Mister—"

"Xiao Long."

The dragonwing shield unfolded as Carmine tripped the hidden trigger mechanism. "No ranged component?"

"My Semblance tends to shake 'em to pieces." He scratched the back of his neck. "My punches'll resonate with each other if I can get a good rhythm going in a fight, but it's pretty tough on the equipment. It took a long time to get the shields to stay intact, and I still have to tighten everything up every day."

"Hmm. We'll see if we can find a shock absorption option for you. In the meantime, I'd personally recommend carrying a sidearm. You don't want to get caught on your own with no method of ranged attack, though I imagine you and Miss Rose have made quite the team with your complimentary weapons."

She wasn't wrong.

"And Miss Taupe! How has the overblown sword chucker been working for you?" Carmine asked, folding Tai's shield away and moving around to the twins' side of the table. "Have you thought of any modifications you'd like to make? It could do with a small caliber pistol in the hilt, don't know why the SDC didn't design them that way in the first place—"

"I'd rather not weigh it down," Raven said, staring down at it. "…I'd like more plating on the scabbard. It's an effective shield in a fight but I want something stronger than dust-enhanced glass."

"Yes, I imagine it could be easier to parry larger blades like your brother's with the sheath." Carmine nodded, checking over every inch. "Very good, Miss Taupe. Usually the ones who ask for something easy to maintain do so because they intend to neglect it. After class, make an appointment with me to work on that plating."

"How'd you get an SDC Guillotine anyway?" Tai said. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh, they keep begging me to go work for them," she said haughtily, reassembling the weapon. "Want to expand their catalog."

"But... they're one of the biggest dust companies in the world! Why _wouldn't_ you want to?"

"Biggest doesn't always mean best, Mister Xiao Long." She set the Guillotine back on the bench with a soft thump and a rattle of dust blades, tinkling like crystal. "And there's more important things to be doing. Professor Ozpin needs me here, and I'm not running out on him for a bunch of stuffed shirts. Even if they're made of gold and silk."

Summer's ears perked up. _Ozpin_ needed her? Not 'the school' or 'the students'? "Have you known the Professor long?"

Carmine's lips pressed in a taut smile. "Your mother warned me about you."

_What? WHAT?!_

Abruptly, she turned to Qrow, beaming. "And Mister Taupe! I know you have some ideas." 

"A-a few," he stammered, clearly as confused as Summer was shocked, "but could we start by putting the shotgun on a swivel?"

"You want to harness the recoil better," she nodded. "You'll need to move down to a smaller gauge to keep it from tearing itself off, it'd give you less energy to work with—"

"—but I'd be able to control the direction it fires, so I could use the energy better."

"Then I'll see you after class as well. Good job on your maintenance, STRQ." She rapped on the bench twice before darting off toward the next group—one of whom was trying to clean a pistol under the table. Summer didn't get the chance to ask her anything else.

 


	27. Taiyang—A Shining STaRQ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got swamped at work yesterday and forgot to post when I got home, sorry!!

Tai looked past Professor Mikado, out at the field. It had all the same features as the one at Signal, but the obstacles seemed a bit… impassable. The wall was at least three stories high, and the ditch at the end could have comfortably fit a small airship inside.

"You might have noticed that our obstacle course is more difficult than the ones you encountered at your previous schools," the professor said, coming to a halt near the starting line and sharply turning to face the students. "Your teams will be competing against each other for the best time through."

_Oh, a **team** course_ . Tai grinned. With Gungnir, this was gonna be _fun_.

There was a ripple of excitement and nerves at that, and he smiled. "Don't worry—your rank won't affect your grades. Professor Ozpin wanted to add team exercises, as you will frequently have to work with other Huntsmen in the field."

Raven leaned in toward Summer. "Can we use our Semblances?" Hmm. Right, she and Qrow would probably be pretty good at this too.

"Using your Semblances is encouraged." The entire class turned to see Ozpin standing behind them, holding a coffee mug as always. "My apologies for my tardiness."

"Of course," Professor Mikado said. "Each team will run the course as a group. All four of you need to step across the finish to stop the clock. Do we have a volunteer to go first?" The leader of Cinnamon stepped forward, eager. 

Finally, after days of listening to the upperclassmen talk about them, the first year class would get to see each other in action. 

...It was just too bad the action wasn't better. Nobody knew each other well, so the first couple teams had plenty of… well, standing around and talking. Trying to figure out how to move past each obstacle one at a time. Tai _really_ wanted to get out there and show everyone what they could do. He and Summer had been working together forever—and the twins even longer than that. 

"Wanna go next?" he asked as the fourth team finished. 

Qrow and Raven just shrugged, but Summer chirped "Sure!" before raising her hand.

"Very well, team STRQ, take your places," Professor Mikado raised his sword, finger on the trigger of the small hilt pistol as the four of them stepped up to the line.

_BANG!_

They sprinted toward the wall, no discussion necessary.

Raven pulled ahead—dang, she could _move_ —and slid to a stop at the bottom as Summer and Tai slowed to fire Gungnir. Qrow leapt onto her cupped hands, flying up as she threw him skyward. The arrow shot past him and bit into the wood at the peak.

Tai took a foothold next to Summer on her rifle's barrel, barely breaking stride, and held tight as they sailed into the air. Below, Raven vanished, and above, reappeared to grab Qrow's hand and haul him up the last few feet.

Gungnir's momentum carried them right over the arrow _and_ the wall as Summer cut the power to the Dust core. Tai let go, angling his body to catch the wind and get clear before flicking out the shield from a gauntlet and slipping it from his wrist. He pooled his aura in his legs, bending his knees as he clipped it onto the spikes of his boot—

—and skated forward on the dusty ground, the dragonwing shield helping him shift some of his downward momentum _forward_  and lessening the strain. As he began to slow, he kicked the gauntlet back into his hand, holding it ready. The tunnel was next.

Raven tore past him again—Qrow a half-step after—reaching the channel first and tossing her oversize scabbard down into it before jumping on. He planted his broadsword behind the Guillotine's barrel and dove out of the way a split second before Raven fired, driving what must have been a fire blade into the side of Qrow's weapon and vanishing with a small explosion.

Moments later, a dark tear in the universe opened next to him and he disappeared into it. _Huh. Didn't realize her Semblance worked both ways._

The arrow whizzed past him, slamming into the dirt right above the tunnel. Tai tossed down his shield the same way Raven had thrown down her weapon and stepped clear, flicking open the second. Summer dove onto the first, lying on her back and firing gravity Dust from the rifle to propel her through on the makeshift sled. 

"Ready!"

Tai grabbed the arrow as he dove into the tunnel on his other shield, holding on for dear life. "Ready!"

It tried to pull from his hands, but dragged him through instead. He shot out the other side, rolling to his feet and kicking the gauntlet back to his hand. Summer traded the other gauntlet for her arrow. All they had left now was a field of large wooden poles, and the gulf. 

So, basically, the forest at home on Patch.

Summer fired into the 'tree' closest to the edge of the ravine as Tai joined the shields into a single diamond-shaped sled. Together, they took a running start, and he jumped onto the board behind her as she activated Gungnir once again. They shot forward over the sand almost like waterskiers, leaning to weave as clean a path through the makeshift forest as they could and gaining speed with every second.

At the last moment Summer cut the power to the Dust cores, and they sailed right past the arrow and over the edge of the cliff—hurtling down at the far wall. She spun the rifle down again, extending the footholds. Tai seized the handle as he braced against one of them, his other foot still clipped into the sled.

Another pulse of the cores slowed their forward momentum to a crawl a breath from impact, throwing them upward like a ball reaching the end of its string. They cleared the far side with ease, rolling to a safe stop in the grass.

"Nice," Qrow grinned ear to ear as he emerged from a final portal after his sister. Behind them, a massive chunk of ice—presumably the remains of one of Raven's blades—cracked from the edge, tumbling into the ditch. Tai followed his gaze to the scoreboard.

They were the fastest team by two-and-a-half minutes.

"Hmm." Ozpin stepped forward, swirling the liquid in his mug. "Very impressive."

Summer beamed. "Thank you, Professor!"

"Would Miss Taupe and Mister Xiao Long mind running the course again?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do they reset the course between teams without Glynda? Plot magic!


	28. Raven—Crash and Burn

"Uh... sure," Tai said.

Raven's hand stiffened on the hilt of her sword. Why would he want them to run the course again? They weren't going to do better separated from their partners. ...Unless they had done _too_ well, and he wanted to put them in their place.

She relaxed. That, she could deal with. 

The two of them lined up on the starting line, ready and waiting—

_BANG._

—and took off, sprinting toward the wall. Without Qrow, she'd have to use an inconvenient amount of ammunition to clear the obstacles. Though, it didn't really matter since the school was supplying it until graduation... She swung the scabbard forward, firing three steel blades into the wall's wooden surface. Instant footholds, and she was at the top in seconds.

She glanced back down at the foot of the wall at the sound of a grunt—Tai had tried to follow her, and the first razor-thin blade snapped and sent him crashing to the ground. 

…She probably wasn't supposed to leave him behind, was she. Stupid Huntsmen and their stupid coddling.

Tai stepped back and took a running start, jumping with a shout and unfurling his shields. The points slammed into the wood, and he dragged himself up the next couple feet one punch at a time. Raven lay down on top of the wall, reaching down as far as she could, and finally pulled him up with her.

At least getting down was straightforward. Slow her fall with recoil, pool aura in her legs and feet, roll to expend the rest of her momentum. To her left, Tai skidded along the ground with his shields on his feet.

She took the lead again, selecting a new blade within the scabbard. A careful shot sent the resin-suspended Dust skittering across the floor of the tunnel, covering it in a solid and slippery layer of ice. Without breaking stride, she tossed the sheath down and jumped on it. Her momentum got her halfway through before she had to fire again push herself clear.

Tai, on the other hand, didn't possess a firearm. He slid a little further than she had and slowly dragged himself through the rest.

They sprinted off again, weaving through the fake forest.

"It'll take me forever to climb out of the ditch," Tai shouted. "Any better ideas?"

Raven scowled. If she used _all_ of her ice blades, she _might_ be able to make a bridge strong enough to hold his weight. Why didn't Tai have his own strategy? It was one thing to work with someone else to get through the course faster, but he couldn't even _complete_ it on his own?

Wait. A bridge.

...No one said she _couldn't_ do it.

Her scabbard whirred and clicked, clipping a fire blade into the hilt. Aura sparked red around her hand as she drew it, tapping the Dust trapped within and setting it aflame. A single, powerful stroke was all it took to send the last wooden pillar—closest to the gulch—crashing down across it.

Raven avoided the headmaster's gaze as they slowed to a halt past the finish line. Whatever game he was playing, she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Mister Taupe and Miss Rose?" he asked as Professor Mikado burned away the bridge with fire Dust. The two of them just nodded and walked back to the starting line, muttering under their breath.

"My sword's probably wide enough we could ride it through the tunnel."

"What about the ditch? Could we cut down a post like Raven and Tai?"

"I don't have that kind of firepower. I could throw you across and—"

_BANG._

They shot forward, Qrow letting Summer take the lead. Again, the arrow bit into the wall, and they rode the gravity Dust's pull up and over. Both used recoil to slow their falls.

Once again Summer took the lead though Qrow only had to take one step for every two of hers. She caught the returning arrow and shoved it back into the barrel of the rifle, firing it straight through the narrow tunnel and into one of the wooden posts on the other side. He tossed down his sword and lay on it, and they skidded through together.

She pass the arrow to him as they wove through the forest, keeping hold of Gungnir's other half. Qrow stuck it in his teeth as he folded down his weapon, clipping it to his back. Pushing forward, he pulled ahead of Summer and cupped his hands as Raven had for him earlier, probably throwing her tiny frame twice as high.

Summer fired, gravity Dust propelling her up and across, and rolled to a halt on the other side. Qrow backed up, getting a running start as she planted the end of the rifle into the grass at the finish line—and leapt straight into the chasm, the arrow keeping him from falling too far. He swung to a stop against the wall, bending his knees to absorb the impact, and easily walked up to the top as Gungnir pulled him in.

The clock halted, fourteen seconds shorter than Raven and Tai's run. Qrow would be insufferable later. Of course he'd get paired with their teammate with a grappling hook, and she had to get stuck with Tai. Misfortune never took a rest.

"It's important that _all_ members of a team be able to work together well," Ozpin said to the class at large with a patronizing smile. "Some of you are partnered with people you have known for years, of which team STRQ is an excellent example. Make sure you don't grow complacent in those bonds. Consider this an opportunity to learn how your talents can compliment someone else's, and how theirs can strengthen you in turn."

They gratefully sat down with the other students who had already run the course. Raven watched with lukewarm interest as the rest of the teams took their turns. At the end they still had the highest score. She allowed herself a little sliver of satisfaction—since she and Qrow had beaten Summer and Tai across the ditch, they had technically beaten every aspiring Huntsman in their class.

"Remember, this is a baseline," Professor Mikado said, indicating the scoreboard. "We do not expect you to win, but your time should improve over the course of the year. Thank you for your enthusiasm today—you are dismissed."

"I think we did pretty well." Summer stretched with a sigh. "Even when we swapped partners."

"Too bad you can only jump to Qrow," Tai mused, looking in Raven's direction. "Can you imagine if you could portal to Summer? Fifteen seconds for all four of us. Tops."

Qrow frowned. "I dunno… how would you get through the tunnel on your own?"

"Would it be cheating to fly over it entirely?"

"You could fire a few ice rounds in like I did," Raven offered.

"Team STRQ, please wait a moment."

They them paused, turning to face the professors. "Yes?" Summer asked.

"I understand from your applications that you and Mr. Taupe have not unlocked your Semblances yet, correct, Ms. Rose?"

Her smile vanished. "Uh… yeah…"

"Extra training for students such as yourselves is held Thursday evenings. You are encouraged to come every week, but attendance is mandatory at least once a month."

Qrow stiffened, but Summer looked even more crestfallen. "Oh. Okay."

The professor smiled at them. Didn't his face ever get tired? "There are three other students in the class as well—don't worry about being the only ones. It may be unusual at your age, with your levels of experience, but it's no reason for concern."

"Thanks," Summer said, and Qrow echoed her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Way to blame your bad attitude and lack of communication on your brother's Semblance, Raven.  
> No. This was all you.


	29. Ozpin—Losing an Argument With Yourself

Sunlight drenched the large tower room, beating through the glass walls and turning Ozpin's shadow into a pillar that reached to the far wall and disappeared into empty air.

_I've always loved sunsets._

_We all have._ He smiled, a thin and tired thing.  _Like-minded souls, indeed. Do you think the God of Light's curse could be so specific?_

"Quite a show," Carmine said, bringing them back to the present. "But even with the change in partners, they didn't do too poorly. Nowhere near the slowest times."

"I fear that was the result of individual ability, rather than actual teamwork. They resoundingly failed to communicate. But what is your impression?"

Carmine chuckled. "Nah, you’re right. Look at their weapons—a spear and a shield? They're designed around each other, to the point where Taiyang doesn't carry a firearm. Gungniris a little more well-rounded, but in practice Summer’s far more comfortable fighting at a distance. Her teachers' assessments at Signal confirm what we saw in initiation. She can handle herself in a close-in fight, but she's not where she could be." She sighed heavily. "And for a silver-eye, that means she's not where she  _should_ be. She's too reliant on him."

And that was the crux of the matter. He'd promised Claret he'd keep her daughter safe, and—short of locking her in the Vault for the rest of her life—the best he could do was surround her with allies and make her the greatest warrior she possibly be. 

Problems arose when the two things appeared to be at odds with one another.  _It's concerning that she hasn't unlocked her Semblance as of yet, either. We've coddled her too much._

 _She's capable, certainly,_ he argued.  _Her grades are proof of that._

_A wonderful vase, but unfired. And if there's a bubble hiding somewhere in the clay..._

"Well, it's only the first week," Carmine said, jolting him from their thoughts. "We've got some time with her yet. Did you mean for them to get partnered with the Taupes?" 

"I arranged for the possibility." Ozpin returned to his desk and refilled his mug. None of the students had yet caught on to the fact that the launchpads could be manipulated. He didn't have  _complete_  control over the partnerships, there was of course room for fate or the students themselves to intervene—but he could absolutely ensure that two particular children ended up near one another in the forest when he felt the need. "Mr. Xiao Long's sprain was a brilliant stroke of fortune. The injury wasn't serious, but I doubt the Taupes would have stayed with them otherwise. It all but guaranteed they would choose the same relic."

"Hm. There weren't too many left when they got there, either." She took a long sip from her own cup. "Are you sure about them?"

"I thought you liked them."

"Qrow's a good kid," she said immediately. "And Raven's alright. I just don't know that they're… bodyguard material."

"A bodyguard is the last thing she needs." Oz set his mug on his desk and laced his fingers together. "They have the experience that Ms. Rose and Mr. Xiao Long lack, and hopefully their differences will provide a catalyst for growth." He smiled. "It's to the twins' benefit as well. They need teammates with a certain degree of patience. Understanding."

"Taking an interest, are you?"

"...Raven's Semblance is… extraordinary."

"No doubt, but she'll be a tough nut to crack."

He chuckled. "Her shell is thinner than I anticipated, actually. I thought for sure someone from team STRQ would be hammering on my door by the end of the week, begging for reassignment."

"I'm a little surprised Raven didn't ask to be leader, myself," Carmine mused. "I assume you picked Summer to give her more experience."

Oz's mouth twitched. "If Ms. Rose had brown eyes, I still wouldn't have picked Ms. Taupe. She doesn't seem very comfortable around people, with the exception of her brother. Making her head of a team may be asking her to run before she can walk."

"So, Summer either way?"

"Mr. Xiao Long would be the best candidate. If he's anything like his father—and Zelenia assures me he is—he's probably the  _reason_ no one's broken down my door." He took a long, thoughtful sip of cocoa. "Then again, I rarely choose the best candidate. This is a school, after all. I believe it's better to choose the person who can learn the most from the position. …I'm not sure if I would have chosen Ms. Rose or Mr. Taupe."

"She asked me about you. Tried to, anyway."

Oz chuckled. "Claret did warn us."

"We won't be able to keep the truth from her much longer."

He nodded, swirling the dregs of his cup. "At least, not all of it."

Carmine sighed, deeply. When he glanced up, she was staring out toward the wilds, into the shadow of the tower. "I just wish we could ask Sterling if we were doing the right thing."

"…As do I."


	30. Summer—Missing Piece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I talk about their auras sparking ~~too much~~ a lot, but *I* don't have a limited animation budget
> 
> TW for blood and injury. Summary at the bottom.
> 
> My beta RangerLcat yelled at me that the injury was gross, anyway. [She's started posting fics on here too, mostly Taiqrow or Ironqrow and I recommend all of them. Especially if you love tooth-rotting fluff!!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RangerLcat/pseuds/RangerLcat) (And she's been sick for like two weeks so definitely leave her a comment)

"It's really not bad…" Summer said.

"Sure."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

 _You don't **seem** fine._ How could someone be so… _present_ in a fight, and so determined to be invisible the rest of the time? _Our team is so disjointed. If I'm supposed to be the leader, does that mean it's my fault?_

It had been a rocky first month of school. At least Raven had been less hostile than during initiation, but mostly the twins were just quiet. It was hard to be friends with people who only ever wanted to talk about schoolwork…

…though Summer had to admit the obvious advantages to having study partners who had grown up outside a Kingdom. _Actually_ outside a kingdom, not on a sheltered island where Signal's staff and students outnumbered the locals three to one. 

Camping, tracking, identifying Grimm… anything even tangentially related to outdoor survival, they were masters. Luckily for them, Summer and Tai were fairly good with math and history. What team STRQ lacked in camaraderie they made up for in study group efficacy.

And Qrow worked harder than anyone in every subject—but he _refused_ to work on his Semblance. He wouldn't go to the classes, wouldn't try meditating or aura focusing, and whenever she tried to bring it up he'd interrupt her with a question about history. 

Which was how Summer ended up heading to the gym on the last Thursday of September with a very sullen friend finally in tow. She couldn't understand it, she'd been dreaming of unlocking her own gift since forever.

The door squealed open, and the gym's occupants paused in their conversations. Professor Mikado broke into a smile. "Mr Taupe, welcome."

"Uh...thanks."

The other students went back to their conversation as he approached them both. "There's no need to feel nervous. This is not a remedial class, it's more of a guided meditation group," he reiterated what he'd said to everyone else during the first session.

Qrow frowned. "Then… why is it mandatory?"

"Several combat schools have found it beneficial to have regular support groups for students that are having trouble with their Semblances. Ozpin extended the program to Beacon."

"Oh."

He chuckled at Qrow's defeated expression. "Don't worry, it's only mandatory the first year. Please, give it a chance—you'll find some good friends here."

Qrow nodded, and the professor turned to address everyone. "Welcome back. Today we'll be trying a meditation style that originated in Vacuo, though it was long before the actual Kingdom was founded." He took a seat on one of the mats, legs crossed with arms resting comfortably on them. Everyone else quickly followed. "Begin with slow breaths—breathe in as you count slowly to four… hold it, and count to seven… release as you count to eight. In… hold… out…"

They'd done the breathing exercises every week, but the professor was probably trying to get Qrow on the same page.

"Now, focus on your aura. Feel it swirling, ebbing and flowing with each breath. Draw it all into your core, as if gravity were weighing it down."

Summer's shields faded as their fuel retreated toward her heart. It didn't feel anything like gravity, it felt like trying to stuff a plushie while sitting inside it. Wisps of cotton, springing back into place as soon as she removed her focus.

It was a powerful and a vulnerable feeling, having so much energy packed in around her heart but having no defenses. Almost unsettling, in a way. Finally, with something like a secure grip on all the little cotton strands, she risked looking around.

The rest of the students all scowled, eyes screwed shut, except for Qrow. Professor Mikado was frowning at him, and as Summer watched, he pulled a loose bullet from his sleeve and tossed it gently in his face. Aura sparks flickered red as it bounced off his defenses and clattered to the floor. "Mr. Taupe, you will find the exercise more effective if you attempt it."

"Why would I want to lower my shields if you're gonna throw things at me?"

Summer snorted, aura flying back out into place as she tried not to laugh, and she wasn't the only one.

The professor chuckled as well. "Begin by relaxing, then. That's what the slow breathing is intended for."

Focus. Summer shook herself mentally. _The exercise works a lot better if you attempt it._ Okay… drawn in like a well of gravity…

Minutes passed, probably. From the occasional frustrated noises of the other students, they were having a harder time with it. She'd always had easy mastery of her aura, which made her lack of Semblance even more—

_BANGhissssss_

Something slammed into her right side, throwing her down and pinning her with face pressed against the mat.

"Get back from it!" Professor Mikado shouted. Summer pushed against the floor with all her panic-enhanced might just as an arm hooked around her stomach and dragged her back. Off balance, they tumbled back to the ground, but she was free at last.

Shards of Dust and glass littered the floor, still sparking and smoking. One of the overhead lights had exploded.

"Are you hurt?!" Qrow demanded, grabbing her shoulder. 

Dazed, she slowly tore her gaze away from the smoldering pile of rubble. "I'm fine…" He stared at her with terrified eyes, glass in his hair and dusting his clothes. "Are you?!"

"Your shields—"

He cut off at a groan of pain from the other side of the debris. Arylide sat with her hands pressed to her head, blood welling between her fingers and running down her arms. Professor Mikado was already standing over her, examining the wound.

"It's not as bad as it seems." He spared a glance at the rest of the class. "Who else is hurt?"

"I… uh…" Brick was clutching a spot just above his elbow, looking slightly nauseated. "There's some in my arm. My aura, uh… h-healed over it…"

"All right, class dismissed. Let's get the two of you to the hospital." He turned back to Arylide. "May I carry you?"

Her voice shook with pain. "Yes, please." 

Summer stared, disbelieving, as they vanished through the doors. Of all the times for the light to break, five people were sitting underneath it with their auras down. She glanced at Qrow with a shaky laugh. "Well. That was an interesting first class. It's usually a lot qui—what's wrong?"

He swallowed hard, but his nauseated expression stayed unrelieved. "I'm fine."

"Did you get cut?" 

"No." He brushed at clothes, aura crackling against the sharp edges of glass. "Taking our shields down is a bad idea."

"Well, we have to sleep sometimes, right?"

His hand stilled, tangled in his hair and still glittering red. It almost matched his eyes. "You can't keep your shields up when you're asleep?"

Summer's mouth fell open. "You _can?!_ That takes years— _decades!_ —of training! How did you learn so quickly?"

"I dunno," he said defensively, "I guess it's because Raven and I would camp out in the woods so much on hunting trips. We just sort of...figured it out."

"Ooh, maybe I should try that!" 

"Don't." His voice soured. "People die. A lot."

Oh. That train of thought seemed to bother him, so she scrambled for something positive. "We're lucky nobody got Dust in a cut." 

"...Yeah. Lucky."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary:
> 
> Summer reflects on the first month at Beacon. Raven's been less prickly than expected, but Qrow's also been quieter than during initiation. STRQ is a study group powerhouse—Summer and Tai are decent at math and history, and the twins are excellent at anything to do with surviving in the wild—but don't talk about much besides schoolwork, and Summer is frustrated by her team's lack of cohesion, blaming herself a bit as their leader.
> 
> Qrow has been refusing to do anything to try to unlock his Semblance and changes the subject any time it's brought up. It's the last class of the month, though, so he HAS to go to this one. Professor Mikado leads the five students through meditation and calls out Qrow for pretending to follow along. As soon as Qrow attempts the exercise in earnest, an overhead light explodes, raining glass on them while their shields are compromised. Qrow (who definitely was not expecting something like this to happen) tackles Summer and shields her, but two of the other students are hurt.
> 
> Summer and Qrow are talking as they leave, and she is surprised to hear that he and Raven are capable of maintaining their defenses in their sleep, something that can take decades to learn.
> 
>  
> 
> I can't believe Doomed to Repeat it is next week. I'm sorry in advance >:]


	31. Qrow—Doomed to Repeat It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, if I make Vanta Branwen able to outright negate aura that would be way too overpowered, and jarring compared to the canon characters! I’ll keep the idea, but it takes like thirty seconds of sustained contact to drain them completely. That’s a long time in a fight, so it’s not too OP. Yeah.”  
> The episode is up for everyone now so I can finally say _dammit_ even if I guess it's better that Vanta and Tyrian don't have the exact same Semblance.
> 
> Chapter count _decreasing_ a bit to 89. Combined a few. They'll be long, but they need to be from a specific POV. Hopefully it'll hold steady from here on out, I am really trying to shove new ideas into new outlines for years 2-4 but we'll see if that happens. Just want to finish this book before I start really thinking about sequels ^_^ 
> 
>  
> 
> **TW: abuse, child abuse, PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks.**  
>  A lot happens here. I think I got all relevant warnings.
> 
>  
> 
> In Volume 5, Yang mopped the floor with the ~~cousins~~ Branwens without breaking a sweat, but in World of Remnant Qrow also described the bandits as being surprisingly competent. This is why I have a few good fighters leading the tribe, and the rest are just opportunistic a*holes.
> 
> Anyways, here you go! Have a pile of my angstiest headcanons...

"…letting Vale rebuild the southern wall. On to Anima—does anyone know what was happening in Mistral during the Xan Era?" Lionheart asked, glancing over his shoulder as his chalk hovered an inch from the board.

"The Bandit Queen!" someone shouted. "I love that movie!"

Qrow's pen froze in his notebook. Had he misheard? But no, Raven stopped too. 

"Yes, well, I'm afraid the film embellishes some details," Lionheart chuckled, writing _THE GREATER BANDIT WAR_ on the board. "But yes, that is the general idea. Bandits have always been a problem in Anima, much more than in Sanus. Any ideas as to why?"

"…Well, Anima has a lot more villages outside the main kingdom than Sanus." 

"It does. Anima's climate is far milder and more predictable. Homesteading outside of the kingdom has always been easier, and sadly in the case of banditry more prey means more predators."

The pen shook in Qrow's hand as he copied what Lionheart was writing on the board. He'd been having an okay day until now...

"Historians agree it was actually a drought that began the war. Crops failed, and people began to congregate in the cities—especially in Mistral. As Marin mentioned, there were six major tribes roaming Anima at the time, and they quickly found themselves with no one to take food from."

"What, are we supposed to feel sorry for them?" someone grumbled from the third row.

Lionheart chuckled. "No, you're supposed to respect them as dangerous opponents to the work we do. Five of these tribes still operate in Anima today, though their influence is nowhere near what it once was. You may find this lesson a little more…  _practical_ than most."

Gods. It had to come up eventually—Huntsmen didn't _just_ fight Grimm. They knew when they signed up there would be lessons on… on killing bandits… But the second month of school? Some luck.

Qrow watched the professor through his bangs as Lionheart set the chalk on the tray and folded his arms behind his back, tail swishing slowly behind him as always.

"They're just bandits," the same girl said. Tiffany? That was her name, right?

"Bandit tribes are the second-best fighters on Remnant, after Huntsmen," Lionheart warned. "And you cannot afford to take them lightly. I am from Anima, I fought plenty before I took up teaching."

"What makes them so dangerous?" someone else asked.

Lionheart smiled. "That is precisely the sort of question you should be asking to get the most from this subject. But to answer it—bandits are just as practiced in the use of aura as any Huntsman or Huntress, and every single one has had their Semblance unlocked since the age of five."

The class broke into astonished mutters and whispers, and Qrow looked down at his notes again. "How's that possible?"

"The tribes have some… _unique_ practices. Some anthropologists go so far as to call it a religion—they justify their actions through a simple code: 'the strong live, the weak die'."

Qrow's stomach curdled.

"Most of you found your Semblances in a moment of need, or intense emotion, correct?" Lionheart continued. "In order to make their people stronger, they do not train their children to generate a defensive aura until after their Semblance is unlocked." More shocked whispers from the students. "As Semblances frequently manifest during times of duress… if a bandit has not found theirs by the age of five, they face a trial of some kind—most often beatings—until they do, or die trying.”

He dropped the pen and folded his hands under the desk so no one would see them shaking. Next to him Raven continued to scratch out notes. But it had been easier for her—Raven’s portals were obvious, showy, and manifested within a few minutes. It hadn't taken the tribe any time at all to figure out what _she_ could do. 

...Maybe if he'd been allowed to discover his Semblance naturally, he'd be able to control it.

“That’s barbaric!”

"True, but remember their code, 'the strong live, the weak die'." Lionheart's voice dragged his attention back to the current danger. "If a bandit does not have a Semblance, the tribesmen see them as unfit to survive. And while cruel, it is effective—the practice is one reason the tribes persist to this day.” 

His tail lashed as he began to pace in front of his desk. "Another is their hit-and-run tactics… raiding a village generates a lot of negative emotions, and will almost always draw in the Creatures of Grimm. Huntsmen sent to aid the town are frequently too occupied fending them off to catch the bandits before they disappear into the wilderness."

He turned to the other chalkboard, the one with the permanent map of Remnant, and began to draw lines across Anima. "The tribes each have their own territory, bordered by natural barriers just like the kingdoms, preventing them from fighting with each other too much. Since the Great War and the founding of the Huntsman academies, the territory that contains Mistral was cleared when the Mathon tribe was wiped out."

Bones had been furious. The tribe burned three villages to the ground without even taking anything, and Qrow and Raven earned their brands a year early.

_Please. Please, just let the bell ring._

"The other tribes have weakened considerably as well, particularly those close to Mistral. As technology has improved, so have our response times. The current council is hopeful that the rest of the tribes will fall before the end of this era, and have dedicated significant resources to fighting them. …Mister and Miss Taupe, you are from Anima, correct?" 

Qrow's blood froze. Every eye in the room was staring directly at them.

"Do you know which tribe was active near your home?"

He didn't look up. The question hung in the air, demanding an answer. Raven was shaking, he could feel through the bench. He swallowed and croaked out, "Branwen."

"Ah, hem, yes," Lionheart said. "In the Xan Era, the Branwen tribe was the largest of the six…"

* * *

The bell rang, mercifully cutting off the discussion of battle tactics during the sacking of Mistral. Lionheart glanced at the clock in surprise, finally returning to the present. "We got a little off-track there, didn't we?" he chuckled, finally setting down his chalk. 

Qrow and Raven hurriedly shoved their things into their bags as he continued. "Make sure you've read chapter three in the textbook. Instead of a write-up, let's do an essay comparing the modern tribes to their Xan Era counterparts—you'll find some information on the contemporary tribes in chapter seventy-eight, but use at least a few additional sources and cite them appropriately. I’ll set the due date at the end of the month—"

"How about _after_ Halloween?"

"Ah, yes. I'll post the specifics online tonight. Class dismissed."

Raven took off, almost running for the door and disappearing through. None of the other students seemed to notice as they gathered their things, but Lionheart was staring. Qrow just busied himself with writing the assignment down.

"I'm sorry." Qrow jumped—the professor had moved right in front of his desk. "I didn't consider whether you may have encountered the tribes before."

Qrow stared at him, frozen, uncomprehending.

“But, I suppose everyone in Anima's lost someone to bandits or the Grimm attacks they cause. Particularly the Huntsmen…“

"…Our parents,"  he lied.

He nodded, eyes closing for a moment. "The Branwens are particularly vicious.” Qrow’s hand tightened on his bag. “If I may offer a word of advice, young man… if you came here to get revenge, do not underestimate them."

His mouth went bitterly dry. "Have you…met…"

"A very long time ago. Probably before you were born. Please, pass my apology on to your sister?"

"Yes, sir." Qrow slung his bag over his shoulder and headed down the stairs, but Lionheart caught him as he passed.

"It's good to have you here with us." He gently squeezed before letting go and turning toward his desk.

Qrow forced himself not to run from the room, and went to find Raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary—  
> Lionheart has a history lesson on the bandit tribes of Anima and triggers Qrow's PTSD while also terrifying Raven. Bones was not a good person. Lionheart assigns an essay, due at the end of the month, on the difference between the historical tribes and the modern ones.


	32. Taiyang—HATCHING a Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right. Hopefully this won't bite me in a few weeks, but, like... this fic is currently scheduled to end in January.  
> Of _**2021**_.  
> I want to finish this before then so I might post some bonus chapters on the Saturdays with no episode

"We should get some binoculars."

Tai glanced up from his work, sitting straighter on the bed. Summer was still at his desk, pen in her mouth as she stared out the window. Her own books lay in front of her, ignored. "You're watching the tower again? I thought you were working on Mesánychta's track identifications." 

Summer scowled down at the desk. "I mean, I _was_ , but it kind of felt like a waste of time without the twins."

...She had a point. Qrow and Raven were far better at identifying Grimm tracks then their 'city-dweller' teammates. By their third assignment team STRQ had developed a habit of Tai and Summer guessing, and the Taupes explaining _somewhat_ patiently how they were wrong.

"Yeah, I can't make any sense of it either." He chucked the workbook into his bag and lay back on his bed. The pillow was right next to his desk, and he could look up at her while she stared out at the grounds. "We're not gonna figure out who Ozpin's meeting with. Too many people visit the CCT Tower, and even with binoculars it's probably too far away."

"I'm starting to think that's why his office is on the top floor," Summer grumbled, glancing in its vague direction. It was, of course, too tall to be visible from their window. Unless they felt like sticking their heads out.

Tai sighed deeply, pulling the pillow from under his head and setting it over his face. "You know," he complained into the cotton, "Beacon has some of the best teachers in the Kingdom—"

"All the best teachers but the _very_ best one." He could hear her grin in the words. "Because _he's_ headmaster at Signal."

"That goes without saying," he replied. "But. Everyone here is so dedicated, so kind, so _eager_ to help in _whatever_ way they can—"

"—right until you so much as _think_ a question about Ozpin," Summer finished, her voice sour.

"Exactly."

"So. Binoculars?"

"And how are you going to explain them to our roommates?" Tai asked.

"I dunno. Maybe birdwatching."

Tai froze, face contorted with glee. Here he'd been _restraining_ himself for an entire _month_ —the egg pun potential alone was unbearable—and Summer had just walked into it. Ten-to-one, she didn't even realize. Slowly, he pulled the pillow down to look over the top.

She was staring out the window again, but as a moment passed she sensed him watching and glanced down. Without hesitation, she seized a corner of the pillow and whipped it away before slamming it back onto his face with a heavy FLOOF.

The impact jarred his laughter loose.

When he finally paused for breath, she was still scowling down at him. "Are you done?" 

"Oh, come on, Summer. It's only been a month. We were never going to get all the answers right away."

"Yes. I know. But seriously!" she shouted, pushing back from the desk to face him head-on. "What is going _on?_ Like, the whole school is doing… _something_ … And probably a bunch of teachers from Signal, since Uncle Azraq and our parents are involved—"

"Professor Mesánychta transferred here from Signal."

"That too! We need a plan."

Last time she said _that_ , they'd gotten grounded for a month. The consequences for getting caught in Ozpin's office were probably a little more severe. "We can't break in!"

"I know, I know, you sound like Mom. But we have to do _somethi_ —" The lock clicked, and Summer broke off as their teammates walked in.

Looking like someone just shot their dog. 

Tai blinked. "Uh… are you… okay?" 

"We are fine." Raven said, voice even and toneless. Stiffly, she dropped her bag at the foot of her bed, crawled under the blankets, and pulled them all the way over her head.

"Are you sure?" Summer asked weakly, but Qrow didn't respond. After staring at the lump of blanket hiding his sister for a few seconds, he followed her lead.

Alarmed, she glanced at Tai and mouthed, _What did Lionheart DO to them?!_  

Tai threw his hands up. _I don't know!_

On the other side of the room, the lump that was Qrow curled into a ball.

"Okay!" Summer jumped to her feet and slammed her hands together. "Everybody had a bad day today! I am going to make some cookies. And then we are going to play some video games. And then tomorrow, we are going into Vale and have some freaking fun! Tai, do you have anything that isn't a fighting game."

"Pomodoro Party 64," he answered, still staring at the Taupes.

"I will take it." Summer rummaged through her closet and emerged with her stash of homemade cookie mix.

Qrow and Raven didn't really look like they wanted a rowdy evening of video games. "Summer, I kind of think maybe the twins are tired?"

"That's what the cookies are for." She strode confidently from the room, leaving him to shrug and reach for the next assignment.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: okay, for this chapter, I'd like to advance the plot and have Summer and Tai to come up with a plan to steal Ozpin's secrets
> 
> STR: F**k you, we're going to play Pomodoro Party 64
> 
> Me: ...what
> 
> Q: Not me, I'm just going to laugh when everyone else rolls like shit
> 
> Me: Are you talking about Mario Party?
> 
> STRQ: 'Mario' is not a color
> 
> [Hey look, we're finally at the garbage fire](https://fire-the-headcanons.tumblr.com/post/188327767378/me-okay-for-this-chapter-id-like-to-advance)  
>  
> 
> I just checked the schedule and even with the extra chapters it still ends in January, just... earlier.


	33. Summer—Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last.... the long-awaited Mario Party

Forty minutes later, Summer returned with a steaming tray piled high with a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. She might have gone a little bit overboard, but what kind of leader wouldn't brown butter for her team? Somehow it had been an entire month, and she hadn't baked anything yet.

'Somehow'. _Homework_. Homework was why.

Tai stared at the massive pile with a greedy gleam in his eye, looking for a moment like his namesake.  "Those smell amazing." Xiao Longs were famous for hoarding two things: family members and good recipes.

"Game set up?" Summer asked, tipping a slightly irresponsible number of treats onto a paper plate before setting the rest to cool on her desk.

"Uh… not really…" he grabbed some food with one hand and pointed at the twin-shaped lumps with the other. Neither of them had moved. 

"I told you, that's what the cookies are for." The plate went on the nightstand between the Taupes' beds, within easy reach. Summer settled down at Qrow's desk, folded her hands in her lap, and waited.

It didn't take long for the smell to infiltrate their fortresses, that was the magic of brown butter. Qrow surrendered first, his arm darting out from under the blanket to snag a cookie before retreating out of sight. Raven held out only four minutes longer.

It took repeated promises that they were far better with glasses of milk, but eventually both of them were sitting up and _almost_ back to normal.

"Have you… ever… had cookies before…?" Tai asked, regretting every word as he said them.

Raven didn't look up. "Of course we have, we're not savages." 

Ah! _Fully_ back to normal, then!

"But we've never had real Valian chocolate chip cookies before and these are amazing," Qrow added.

"All right, time for step two of my evil plan!" Summer dropped a controller into each of their laps.

Raven set down her glass of milk to inspect it properly. "How do we play?"

"Well, it's like a normal board game—uh… roll dice, move around a board—" Tai began.

"Dice?" Qrow stared at his controller.

"It's a virtual dice."

"Die," Summer chirped. 

The other three froze, staring, various stages of shock and confusion on their faces. She threw her hands up in exasperation. "The singular form of dice is die!"

Understanding dawned, and they relaxed. Though, the Taupes scowled at each other for some reason*. That pseudo-telepathy thing, where twins can have an entire conversation just by looking at each other? Very real. Summer and Tai were slowly learning to tune it out.

"Right. Okay. What was I saying? Move around a board, and earn coins. And then sometimes you play minigames to earn more coins. The first person to buy every color of Dust shard wins, at least on most maps. I'll pick an easy one."

"I—uh—I have to—" Qrow stammered, starting to set down the controller.

Raven _glared_ at him, for just a moment, but suddenly all the air was gone from the room.

"Uh…" Tai stumbled for a way to smooth things over. "You don't have to play if you don't want to…?" 

"Thanks." Qrow spoke as tonelessly as Raven had when they'd first walked in, and hugged his knees to his chest, leaving the controller on the bed next to him.

The Taupes had gotten less weird as they settled in, but then occasionally something like this would still happen. Each time, it was Tai who made things at least slightly better. And each time, Summer was at a complete loss.

"Okay, Raven, you can pick your character." She chose Fantasma, so Summer and Tai picked their usual Pesca and Pomodoro.

"All right, now we roll to see who goes first," Tai said. "Just press the blue button." Raven pressed it a little harder than necessary, and her die stopped at three. "Okay, so if someone rolls lower than a you, they'll go ahead during the game—"

Summer rolled a 5, and Tai rolled a 4.

"Hey, beginner's luck."

"Don't get too competitive," she warned. The neighbors might have knocked on her mom's door during a few heated games in the past… 

" _You're_ the competitive one." He stuck his tongue out before turning back to Raven. "So now we're actually playing. Go ahead and roll again to see how far you move."

Raven pressed the button again, a little more gently this time, and rolled a 7.

"Hey, pretty nice! The max is 14, so…" her character came to a stop on a red space and dropped three coins. "…oh. Forgot about that."

She almost smiled. "What were you saying about beginner's luck?"

"It happens to everybody," Tai said, taking his turn and getting a 5. "Oh, see, this is a minigame space. There's a bunch of different ones, and they all have different rules—here, in this one, there's seven crystals. One is a Dust shard that'll explode and make you lose coins, five are rock candy that give you one coin, and one's a gemstone that gives you a bunch of coins."

Raven frowned as Pomodoro vanished in a poof of rainbow smoke, setting Tai at zero. "I thought the point of the game was to _collect_ Dust shards."

"Not with your face!" Summer cackled, rolling. "HA! Fourteen! Gotcha, Tai!"

"Dangit."

"What's that space do?"

"This is a mystery square," she explained, and then cried out in dismay as a little cartoon Beowolf jumped out and attacked Pesca. "DANGIT! Lost a turn."

Tai leaned over to fake-whisper to Raven. "I told you she was the competitive one."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Twinspeak translation:  
> Raven: Especially when you're around  
> Qrow: Shut your stupid face up
> 
>  
> 
> [ Hey look, the first few rounds of their game has audio! (Contains stronger language than I use in the fic) ](https://youtu.be/4RruYQGEzfM?t=7)


	34. Raven—Qrow Wins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you didn't read the chapter I posted Saturday, make sure you read it first!
> 
> I think the easier it is for something to go wrong, the more like Misfortune is to affect it. A well-maintained stove isn't very likely to burst into flames but a dice roll is very susceptible to manipulation

"Oh my GODS, what is WRONG with this thing?" Tears streamed down Summer's face as she struggled to catch her breath. The controller slid to the floor with a muffled thump.

"This isn't how it normally goes?" Raven asked. Qrow's Semblance was a nuisance—or a hazard—but once in a while it was fun to sit back and watch the show.

Tai watched with a stoic sort of exhaustion as his character fell down the bottomless pit for a ninth time. "Please. I just need, _not_ a 7. Any other number. Literally _any other number_."

And what a show. He appeared to have broken both of them.

"Okay. Okay." Summer took deep breaths, forcing the laughter down. "It's been… almost an hour, and nobody has _any_ Dust shards. I'm calling it. The game station wins this one."

Raven smirked with a half glance at her brother. "I think Qrow won by not playing." Unable to do anything else, he only glared back.

"Wish you'd played before now," Tai said, "it's not as funny if you don't know how it's _supposed_ to go."

"Any ideas of what we want to do in town tomorrow?" Summer asked, drawing her feet up off the floor to sit cross-legged on top of the blanket. "Halloween's coming up. We could look for costume ideas."

"I thought Halloween was a kids' holiday," Qrow said, clearly relieved to be off the subject of luck.

"Trick or treating is for kids. For adults it's about drinking, from the way Mom complains about it—but for us, it's all about the _scares_. ...And pumpkin cookies."

 _Gods_ , Raven missed drinking.

"You'll also take any opportunity to dress up that you can get," Tai said.

"I spent a long time on that costume!"

"Why don't we all match this year instead?" he asked, grinning. "I was thinking it'd be funny if we all went dressed as teachers. Qrow could be Ozpin since he's so skinny, Raven could go as Professor Mesánychta, and I think I would make a dashing Peter Port." He held his hands near his mouth, wiggling his fingers in a strange approximation of his mustache.

"What about me?" Summer asked.

Raven knew exactly what Tai was thinking, and hovered her hand below shoulder level. " _Professor Carmine_ ," the three of them said in unison.

"Hey! We have other traits besides height!"

Raven smiled. "Boundless energy, for starters."

"Isn't that the truth." Tai rolled his eyes.

"Okay, but what do you mean 'scares'?" Qrow asked. "What do we actually  _do?_ "

"Beacon always throws a huge party," Tai explained. "The seniors put it on—the teachers get them to go all-out and try to do better than the previous year. Most of them are twenty-one so it's really just a way to keep them from getting drunk or in trouble."

Summer nodded. "The haunted house is legendary. They used to do it in the CCT Tower, until the accident…"

"Accident?"

"Nobody was hurt!" she said quickly. "But global communications were down for almost an hour and a few people _nearly_ got arrested. Now they use the Grimm Studies building."

"So… it's a party where we fight Geists?" Qrow asked, but their teammates only frowned in confusion.

"Geists." Raven repeated. They were rare, but they weren't  _that_ rare. Even city-dwellers should have heard of them. "Ghost Grimm that possess objects?"

Her eyes widened. "Those are a thing?!"

Qrow shrugged. "Well, they're not exactly common, but yeah."

"Now _that's_ spooky," Tai said.

She sprang off the bed, running to her desk to retrieve their Grimm Studies textbook and flipping through it. "Huh. Never been spotted in Vale, uncommon in Solitas and eastern Anima."

Ah, that explained it then. There seemed to be a lot of Grimm from home that didn't appear here... Was it the other way around too? "What kind of Grimm do you get here that are unique?"

"I think Professor Mesánychta said Boarbatusks are only found in eastern Sanus," Summer said, frowning. "Back when we were at Signal, not here. But those are _not_ rare. And a royal pain."

"We get some of the biggest Ursa and Beowolves in the world, though," Tai said, rifling through his box of games. "Even if they're not that unique. Let's play something skill-based next, since the gamestation's haunted today." He held up a cartridge. "This is our favorite fighting game, Fatal Fray, and if you're gonna live here you're gonna have to learn to play it."

_What?_

Summer snorted, elbowing him. "Tai!"

"Just kidding! But it's super fun and we get tired of only playing each other."

 

 


	35. Taiyang—COSTumes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, a normal-length chapter!
> 
> First episode back from hiatus is gonna drop in two hours and I'm Not Ready. Let's just hope Atlas doesn't drop with it amirite

"Ramparts! For all of your cosplay needs!" Summer declared, throwing the door open dramatically. The Taupes followed her in, looking around in confusion.

"This is a costume store?" Raven asked, brushing through a rack of sweaters.

"Thrift store," Tai corrected. "People donate old clothes, they sell 'em cheap, and the money goes to charity. Summer likes to find stuff and make alterations."

"Come on, let's look at suits!" She grabbed Qrow's wrist and hauled him off toward the men’s section. Amused, Tai and Raven followed.

"Okay, we want to find a green suit and vest for Ozpin, and a red suit for Pete," Summer said, already digging through the racks for anything near the right colors. "Preferably double-breasted, but we probably won't find one. We can sew a little gold ribbon around the edges to make it look like him. I've got a scarf we could tie like his ascot. What about shoes? Should we get shoes?"

He accepted the hideous maroon suit she was holding out.  "Our uniform shoes will be fine, Summer."

"Yeah, you're right." She was in her natural habitat now, comparing every dark green suit in the store to one of their photos from Ozpin's file. It only took a few minutes for her to pop back out of the racks with a three-piece that looked to be about Qrow's size. "Try it on!"

"Uh…" He eyed it warily, holding it in front of his face.

"We are not spending four thousand lien on something you're only going to wear once," Raven said, glaring at the tag.

She had a point. Tai glanced over Summer's shoulder at the photo on the scroll, searching for another solution. "Y'know, Ozpin's suit is really dark—the uniform jacket and pants would probably work fine if we got a green turtleneck to put under it."

"I was thinking just a scarf for that bit, actually," Summer said, running to the end of the aisle and grabbing one with horrible stringy fringe. "We'll tuck the ends in under the jacket. Cardboard will work for his tie-pin-thing, and then all we need are some glasses."

The bin was right next to Tai, and he started rifling through. "None of these look like Ozpin's."

"Those weird bendy parts on the sides are probably custom. Just grab some small round ones."

He held up a pair he’d seen almost immediately, and Qrow gingerly took them.

"How does he see though them?" he muttered, squinting. "These are tiny."

"They're also only thirty lien 'cause the lens is cracked, but we can take them out back at school."

"What should we get for the Carmine costume?" Tai asked. "I don't think we're going to find a leather apron here. Or for less than fifty thousand lien."

"What? No, I'm wearing the one I didn't finish in time for WeaponsEx!"

"Come on, you can wear it next year. We've gotta match. Nobody will be able to see the detail on it in the dark anyway!" 

"Fine," she sighed, grabbing maybe the ugliest brown dress in existence off the rack behind her. It looked about six sizes too big for her, layered with thick ruffles in multiple shades. "I'll cut patches of the darker lining for the embossing Carmine has around the edges. There should be plenty of fabric."

She just couldn’t do a sewing project halfway. "That's still way more effort than you need to put into this."

"What's WeaponsEx?" Raven asked.

"There's a big weapons convention every summer in Vale. Tons of businesses show off new stuff. Dust companies, arms manufacturers, defense engineers—" he said.

"And there's an entire wing of the hall for comics!"

"You mean _recruiting_."

"Yeah, same difference. There's costume contests, artists answer questions and sign autographs—"

"And they get a few famous Huntsmen to come too," he finished.

Qrow listened with an intensity usually saved for forging class. "Whoa, cool."

Raven rolled her eyes. "You're drooling."

"Yeah, it's where the SDC unveiled the Guillotine last year." Summer said, still thumbing through the suits. "The easiest way to do Professor Mesánychta's suit would be to splatter-paint stars onto the school uniform, but anything that would show up might not wash out…"

"Flour." Tai pointed out.

"Ooooh! Yeah!" 

Raven frowned. "It'll just fall off."

"Not while you're wearing it! Your aura kinda holds it in place—I speak from experience. We can make her headband out of cardboard too. Lucky so many of the staff wear dark suits."

They brought their things up to the registers, the twins looking much more at ease with their two hundred lien price tag.

"So, where should we eat?" Summer chirped.

"…We're not going back to the school?" Qrow and Raven shared an anxious look.

"Well… we could, but it'd take like two hours to fly there and back," she said. "Besides, don't you want to go somewhere other than the cafeteria?"

"Maybe, uh, we'll just meet up with you again after, then…" Qrow stammered. 

"What? Come on, that'll take ages," Summer said with a wave. "Come with us to Goldenrod's! We go every time we’re in Vale, they have these giant noodle bowls, it's great—”

"We'll meet you there in a half hour," Raven said. "There's a comic store Qrow wanted to look at."

Why were they—oh. They hadn't been worried about the cost of the suit _just_ because it was frivolous. Tai's ears burned with secondhand embarrassment. "Uh, Sum—"

Summer tilted her head. "You know I love comics… Why don't we all go after lunch?"

Qrow straightened up, bracing himself. "Because we don't have any money."

Raven shot him a panicked glare as Summer wilted. "…Oh." She fiddled with her hands for a second before shoving them into the pockets of her hoodie. "Sorry, I…"

"I—I mean, it's been nice looking around with you two—"

"We'll buy today," Tai said quickly. Anything to make the awkward stop.

"You don't have to—" Raven began.

"No, come on, it's team bonding time! We've got you. And next time we come to town we'll just pack a lunch."

* * *

"So, have you ever visited Mistral?" Summer asked, errantly drumming on the table as they waited. "I guess you said you were from _southern_ Anima, that'd be a long trip…"

"It was. We went twice."

Her eyes widened. "Really? What's it like? I don't really remember Anima that well." 

"It's…more dangerous than Vale," he said, glancing out of the window at the end of their booth. "Unless you're rich. We mostly kept our heads down. …What about your home? What's Patch like?"

Summer shrugged. "Not much to say. It's just a little port town on an island outside Vale. Forest on the west side has some Grimm, nothing big enough to be a real threat."

"It's the most boring place in existence," Tai sighed.

"At least you'd have ships to look at," Raven said. "There is nothing on Remnant less interesting than a farm." Everyone stared at her for a half-second, she'd been her usual withdrawn self all day. She flinched at the sudden attention. "…I've always liked boats."

"Me too," Summer admitted. "But, sailing boats. With sails. You know, the old-fashioned windy kind, not the new big loud cargo ships."

 _Nobody_ liked the giant—usually Atlesian—monsters that would barge into the harbor at all hours. Tai gestured with his chopsticks. "Ugh, and that one asshole that always runs too close to the north side of the island and wakes everyone up in the middle of the night!"

"Well, hey, why don't we go to the docks after the comic store? We could take pictures and stuff!"

"Because your camera’s broken. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Her face fell a little. "Well, we can still look around."

"There's not actually a comic store," Raven admitted. "We were trying to buy time."

Summer reached across the table, taking her hand in both of hers. "Raven. You're not getting out of going to the comic shop with me and Qrow just because you made it all up."

Raven rolled her eyes, the ghost of a real smile playing around her mouth. "Fine."


	36. Summer—Mission Critical

Summer slammed her hands down on the counter, grinning. "What'cha got?"

The old man sighed, same as the last dozen times she’d come in. "I'm tellin' ya, kid, if any _Reaper_ books go up for sale it'll be at an auction. The bundle you found here was a fluke, it's not gonna happen again."

"Not with that attitude, it won't!"

"I think I'm having a nightmare," Raven muttered, staring at the brightly colored walls.

Tai snorted. "Yeah, each one tries to stand out so you'll pick it."

"Well, that's a bust," Summer said to Qrow as she stepped back from the counter to let the next person up. Behind him, Tai and Raven drifted toward the weapon replica displays. "Come on, the posters here are always cool. So which Reaper comics to you have?"

Qrow scratched his neck. "I had _Beowolf Migration_ part two and _Death Stalks_ part four."

"Wait. Had?"

"One of the other hands trashed my collection."

"What?! That's terrible!"

"It's not _so_ bad." He brushed the handle of the gunblade, folded down and clipped to his back and half-glancing at his sister. "I mean, I'm at Beacon, learning to become a Huntsman. I'm kind of… living it now."

"That's… a really nice way of looking at it… But that guy's still a _jerk,_ " she muttered, slowly flipping through the vintage poster display. Wasn’t life hard enough without going around making it worse for other people? And Qrow wasn’t the type to defend himself. Dan’s teasing had proved that—it had taken her and Tai yelling at him together to get him to stop. Meanwhile Qrow never said a word in his own defense.

"What about you, though?" he asked eagerly. "I only ever got to read the two. They weren’t exactly common out there, since they're printed in Vale."

"Well… I found a few arcs’ worth here two years ago," she gestured at the counter. "But they’re out of print, so the ones that do pop up for sale tend to be really, really expensive. And they haven't been released digitally yet, so I, uh..." She dropped her voice, leaning in a bit. "I pirated scans."

"...What does that mean?"

Oh. Right. They were still getting used to email. "I'll explain later. But I have them all, and you can read them."

A shadow fell over Qrow's face, and she almost stepped back in surprise. What had she said?

"Oh. Thanks, but… you don't have to lend me your stuff," he mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets and avoiding her eye.

Oh, Brothers, it was happening again. How was she supposed to know what to say if she didn't know what was wrong? And how did Tai always seem to figure it out, anyway?

 _Ozpin should have made_ him _leader._

"Well, it's…" she faltered. "I can just give you copies. On your scroll."

"Really?" he looked up again, scowl vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Yeah, but… Do you think we could read some together? Tai's not really that into comics—Zaff was the one I'd talk about them with and he's at Atlas now—"

"That'd be awesome," he grinned. "Nobody at home liked them at all."

Summer smiled back. Tai was great and would happily listen to her ramble about theories, but that didn't mean he _understood_ any of them. "I don't have too many paper comics anymore," she continued, rifling through the vintage poster display. "I subscribed to all the new ones online, so I wouldn't have to worry about lugging a bunch of books between home and Signal. And, well, I've always wanted to be a Huntress, so I knew I'd be traveling around." 

She paused on a poster of a woman in regal armor, frozen halfway through a powerful swing of a gravity Dust-enhanced warhammer beneath the words _Queen of the Hunt_. A long, starry cape swirled behind her, hood half-fallen from her head. "I've always wanted a cloak."

"Then why not get one?"

"I thought people might laugh…" Heat ran over her face. _Nice going, idiot, he wears one on a daily basis._ "B-but then I saw your cape, and I kinda wanted to again…"

"You're a Huntress. You decide what's cool," Qrow said, gesturing at the woman but freezing mid-wave. Squinting, he inspected the poster more closely. "Summer… is that Professor Mesánychta?"

She stared back at the poster. The cape—maybe this was why it had stood out, and she hadn't realized—was the same starry pattern as the professor's typical suit. Their headbands weren't identical, but both had a lunar theme. And she fought with a bow, not a polearm warhammer—

But no, that _was_ Spring Tide, the engravings were all the same. The quiver formed the hammer head, and the bow was the handle. _It must use gravity Dust to make it heavy enough to do damage._ The woman was thirty years younger, but unmistakably—

"Oh, _gods._ " Her hands flew to her mouth. " _You're_ _right!_ "

* * *

The sun burned the horizon orange and red as their shuttle docked at Beacon's cliff, and they followed a large group out onto the little airfield. A lot of other students were also returning to school for dinner.

"Mission success!" Summer shouted, spinning the poster's cardboard tube over her head like Gungnir. A nearby recruiter in red and white jumped, halfway through his speech to a group of semi-attentive upperclassmen.

Tai and Qrow glanced at each other. "…And what mission is that, exactly?" Tai asked.

"I learned something about each of you." She pointed at Raven, grinning triumphantly. "You like boats, and you actually know a lot about sailing!"

Raven's hand tightened on her bag as she blinked in surprise, but Summer knew she wouldn't like the spotlight if it stayed on her too long. She pointed at Qrow next. "And you want to become a Huntsman because you like helping people!"

He smiled, embarrassed. "Right again."

"Plus, Raven smiled like, three times today. So: mission Team Bonding accomplished!" 

" _What are you doing back up here?!_ "

Summer cut off and the four of them turned to watch Professor Carmine storm from the forge, blowtorch in hand. The recruiter took a nervous step backward, spluttering as the little Forgemaster marched right up to him.

"Professor Ozpin has strictly forbidden any Merlot-Blanc personnel from recruiting on the school grounds," Carmine snapped as the students started to drift away. "So, mister, what makes you the exception to the rule?"

"Look, ma'am, I'm sorry, I'm just doing what they pay me to do—"

"What's Merlot-Blanc Industries?" Qrow asked as they began to drift toward the cafeteria as well. Behind them, the recruiter continued to stammer and back away nervously.

"Huh. I think they’re the companies that's building the development out past the mountains? They must be trying to find Huntsmen to guard the construction. Dunno why Ozpin wouldn't want them at Beacon's docks."

"Maybe someone caused trouble?" Tai guessed. "Though, speaking of trouble, I guess we have something to blackmail Professor Mesánychta with next time she tries to give us detention."

Summer stared down at the poster tube in her hands. He was right—maybe, just maybe, they had _leverage._

She wasn't going to waste it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summer: Sometimes… I pirate comics…
> 
> Summer: Only when they're out of print though!!
> 
> Qrow: That's okay, I used to pirate villages


	37. Raven—Liquid Courage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Panic, anxiety, BAD coping mechanisms, alcohol, underage drinking, self harm, more profanity than usual

_I learned something about each of you._

Raven rolled over again. The bed was even less comfortable than usual—it had already been two hours and she was no closer to sleep. 

_I learned something about each of you._

Even the nights after Bones died, when Qrow was too injured to keep watch, had been easier to sleep through. She still wasn't certain why they'd survived… Then again, the rest of the tribe had probably been afraid of what Vanta would do if someone else killed them first.

_I learned something about each of you._

 Months of waiting and hiding and fear, with nothing to numb it, all brought to a close in a humiliating public spectacle when someone inevitably guessed the truth. 

_I learned something about each of you._

No wonder Vanta agreed to this plan, they'd come up with a far worse torture for themselves than anything she could ever have dreamed of.

_I learned something about each of you._

They all knew how her Semblance worked, they'd incapacitate her first and—

_We're going to die here._

It was too much. She _needed_ it. With a furtive glance over her shoulder at their teammates, Raven slid from her bed and eased Qrow's closet open with shaking hands. The flask didn't feel any lighter than the last time she'd caved. Had he really not had any since the second day? Or was he watering it down too?

_I learned something—_

Raven turned heel and raced from the room, slipping through the door as quietly as she could, craving the scant privacy of the bathroom stalls almost as much as the moonshine. She needed to be _alone_ sometimes—or at very least alone with Qrow, who wouldn't kill her deliberately. 

As hard as it was to pace herself, every sip was a painful reminder that they couldn’t get more for three years. She'd stolen… two drinks? More? Gods, the thing should be nearly empty by now. No wonder it wasn't working as fast, it had to be more water than alcohol.

Stolen… 

They couldn't _buy_ any for three more years, but… Raven held her hand in front of her face, twirling her fingers as a little cloud of darkness swirled across her palm. Maybe her stupid Semblance could be useful after all.

_I learned something about each of you._

"Shuttup."

_I learned something about each of you._

"Fuck _ovvf._ " She banged her head against the thin wall a couple times, trying to shake Summer's voice loose, but the words kept running through her mind.

"Raven?"

She jumped at the sound of Qrow's voice, the little portal closing with an audible _snap._ Oops. "Probably _his_ stupid Semblance woke him up anyway," Raven muttered, tongue flopping like a dying fish. But if she could steal more, she didn't have to hold back, right? Just for a few hours, she could feel warm and safe again… maybe get a good night's sleep…

"Raven?"

She stared at her palm again. The portal had closed, why could she still hear Qrow?

"Are you in there?"

Oh right. The door, outside. "Shh, I'm _hiding_."

"...Are you drunk?"

"No!" Someone could be listening! "That's ill-ye-gal." The word tripped her tongue on her teeth. It had too many Ls, she decided, taking another drink.

"Is anyone else in there?"

"Dunno. It's dark." It wasn’t—at all— but the right words were gone.

Qrow's feet appeared under the door. "Can you come out?"

"Somebody will see!"

"It's just me in here. And I locked the door. We're safe."

He probably wanted booze. It _was_ his, even if he wouldn't get mad about it. Stupid Qrow never got mad at anyone. He was gonna get killed and then she'd die too. Nearly falling off the toilet seat, she managed to lean forward and slide the latch open. "Your turn," she muttered, holding out the flask as he pushed it open. "The Grimm are gonna find us."

Qrow sighed, taking a sip as he leaned against the wall. Frowning, he squinted at it. "Did you water this down?"

 _Dammit,_ he noticed. "Make it last longer."

He sighed, putting the cap back on. "I thought you had fun today." _For fuck's sake, get angry. **Do** something._ "Come on, Raven, what's wrong?"

"Summer wants to _know_ about us." Dumbass. 

"We're on a team together. That's normal."

Comic book dumbass. "If she finds out, she'll tell Ozpin. And the police. And the Huntsmen. And then they'll shoot us." Qrow didn't answer, pouting at the floor. "You _want_ to be friends with them." Wanted to make things worse. That's what he _did,_ he took bad things and made them worse, it was in his fucking _soul_.

And hers would always be a stupid, scared little kid that needed other people to protect her. Both of them together were _almost_ a whole Branwen.

She reached for the flask in his hand again. "What're you gonna do when they kill us, Qrow?" 

He took another drink before capping it and shoving it in his pocket. "Come on, Raven, let's get you to bed," he said, scooping her up and carrying her toward the door. He paused, kicking something out of the way—

—and it flew open, barely missing them.

"Mr. Taupe! What are you doing in the ladies' room?! And at this hour?" Port demanded.

He did it, his stupid Semblance killed them both.

"Raven's sick," Qrow said.

"Is she _drunk?_ "

She buried her face in his shoulder, eyes burning. They were going to die.

"I had to clean her up with rubbing alcohol," he lied, walking around him. "Sorry, I gotta put her down!" He shuffled away as quickly as he could, and she kept her head down and waited for the Huntsman to attack.

"It's okay," Qrow whispered, leaning forward. Panic at the sudden movement shot through her, and she rolled from his grip—back into bed. "I think he fell for it."

"I don't—I don't wanna die."

"...It's gonna be okay." He pulled the blanket up to her shoulder before returning to his own bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't drink, so feedback is appreciated. Am I doing this right?


	38. Qrow—Just Like Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW vomit, panic attack, abuse, sexual harrassment

He hadn't known there were any photographs. The tribe hadn't exactly had a camera.

Bones smirked up at him from the page, hair and beard only just starting to gray. Another of Lionheart’s ‘supplemental sources’ lay over Vanta’s face. A reporter had gotten lost, according to the book, and stumbled across the tribe. By some bizarre stroke of good fortune they were allowed to leave with a couple dozen photos. Including one of the tribe's leaders. 

The photo had then been used to try and track them down for the next twenty years. Luckily, their eyes were too dark to make out the red, and the beard disguised just how similar his face was to Qrow‘s.

...He probably needed to be more careful about shaving. 

"Qrow?"

Summer's voice yanked him from his thoughts. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You look kind of sick too," she said, frowning.

He just wanted to get Lionheart's essay _over_ with and stop thinking about it _or_ the tribe. Problem was, he kept getting… stuck. "I'm fine. Too much homework. You know." The essay was in worse shape than even his notes, with random half-formed thoughts littered over the page.

It didn't help that there weren't really any differences between the tribes in the history textbooks and the nightmares he'd rather not think about. It wasn't like the they had adopted the new technology of the Kingdoms after the Great War.

Maybe that was the point, maybe the tribe hadn't gotten any weaker. Like Lionheart said, the Huntsmen were just getting better at hunting them down—

He pushed back from his desk, barely getting his head over the trash can in time to avoid making a mess.

"Not you too!" Summer cried in dismay. "…I hope it wasn't the ramen yesterday…"

"If it were, you and Tai would be sick," he croaked, knotting the liner shut.

"Brother, what are you doing," Raven groaned, pulling the covers further over her head.

"Lionheart's essay."

She struggled to push herself upright, glaring at him through her hair with bloodshot eyes. "You're not actually doing it."

"Yeah, if you're getting sick too you should rest—" Summer began.

"I'm fine," he said quickly, getting to his feet and heading for the door with bag in hand. "I just want to get it over with."

"Why do you even care about your History grade?"

"What?" Summer blurted.

"It's one dumb assignment. Just ignore it," Raven muttered, retreating back under her blanket.

Summer looked appalled. "Raven, our grades affect what jobs we can take after school! You can't just start skipping assignments!" 

Qrow ignored them, pulling open the door—and walked right into the person on the other side. There was a loud _POP_ , and the wetness on his shirt and pants told him his Semblance had just made a poor decision on his behalf.

"Oh _gods, WHAT IS THIS?_ " Dan gagged, staggering back, wringing it off his arms onto the floor. Tai stood frozen with a look of horror, scroll hovered over the pad to unlock it.

Qrow took off for the bathroom, his stomach churning again. He barely made it to the stall in time, not bothering to close the door behind him.

It wasn't fair. Bones had kept him alive, had literally _given them life_ , he didn't deserve to die like that—except he _did,_ he was a terrible person who killed so many—why couldn't he just be one thing? He… he… 

He should have gotten a burial. They all left him there in the freezing mud—his children, sister, tribe—

_CRACK_

Qrow reeled, aura sparking in his eyes as he slumped to the bathroom floor, head ringing from slamming into the toilet seat.

"You _stupid hick_ ," Sanguin spat, hand curled into a fist and crackling with the sickly yellow-green of pond scum. No… not Sanguin. Dan. 

Dan hit him from behind. But… he was a _Huntsman._

The door creaked open, out of sight at the opposite end of the bathroom. "Hey Dan, I got your clothes." 

He grabbed Qrow's arm, dragging him back onto his knees, shoving him around so he was bent over the toilet again. As his aura settled from the hit, he felt just how much energy it had taken to soften the blow— _how could he have done so much damage?_

"There you go, let it out," Dan said silkily, rubbing his back, making Qrow's skin prickle like he'd slept on an anthill. His stomach clenched again, but at least it was empty now.

"I hope this isn't from the ramen," Tai muttered. Qrow was shaking and couldn't stop, chafing under Dan's arm.

"You all right?" he asked with convincing concern, digging his fingers into Qrow's shoulder. "You slipped pretty badly there."

It took him a second to catch his breath, the pain in his shoulder growing every second. "I'm f-fine." 

"No you're not, you're sicker than Raven," Tai said. "Here, Dan, go clean up before you catch it too."

His fingers bit into Qrow's shoulder once more, until the tiniest breath of a whimper escaped his throat. Finally, _finally,_ he pulled away and his footsteps retreated toward the showers.

Qrow dry heaved again, his stomach muscles screaming in protest. When it was over he slid sideways, sitting on the tile and leaning on the toilet for support, trying to catch his breath.

Tai stood in the stall door, looking concerned and a little nauseated. "You gonna be okay long enough for me to grab you a change of clothes?" 

Qrow glanced up, briefly meeting Tai's eye before another convulsion ran through his abdomen, nearly sending him back to the toilet bowl. "…M' fine."

"'K. I'll be right back."

"N-no, I'm fine."

Tai paused, looking down at him like he was crazy. "Dude. You can barely sit up. I'll bring you some clothes."

He leaned his head against the wall as Tai vanished, letting his eyes close. After a few seconds the bathroom door swung shut with a quiet _thunk_ behind him.

"Gods, you're pathetic." He jerked back up, but Dan wasn't in sight. "How'd a coward like you get into Beacon? The rest of us have worked our whole lives for this. You think you can just come in halfway through?"

Qrow didn't say anything. Talking to Sanguin or Vanta always, always made it worse. Far better to let him blow off steam, and be ready to run when it got violent.  …He just hadn't expected it from a Huntsman.

"I don't think your aura can take more than a couple hits from my Semblance." He sneered. "Gods, you don't even _have_ a Semblance. How did you get in?"

"Do you hurt Tai?"

He hadn't meant to say it. He hadn't even thought about saying it, it would have made more sense to just ask Tai anyway –

Dan laughed, and the shower hissed to life at the other end of the room, covering any reply he might have made. Qrow curled in on his stomach as it tightened painfully, trying to keep from losing it again.

He still hadn't caught his breath when Tai finally got back.

"…This was all I could find," he said uncertainly, holding out Qrow's worn-out sleep clothes.

"Thanks," he murmured, taking them. Tai…Tai was okay. He and Summer trusted Dan, right? They didn't flinch away when he was angry, weren't afraid to disagree with him. He backed off when they told him to. 

Qrow _was_ an impostor, he _didn't_ belong here. Someone was bound to pick up on that, and with his luck, it just happened to be Dan.

Right?

He couldn't bring himself to speak. Dan was right, he was a coward. The Grimm Reaper would have fought back, made sure her teammate was safe, but Qrow could only sulk and hide like he had in the tribe.

Tai offered a hand. "Come on, I'll help you over to the shower."

 "I'm okay, really," he rasped, forcing himself to his feet without Tai's help. "I'll meet you in the room in a few minutes."

Tai shrugged, looking at him with something resembling pity. "If you're sure."

He forced a smile that probably looked more like a grimace. "Yeah. Thanks." 

The lock on the stall was flimsy, but better than nothing, and he couldn't change in front of Summer or Tai. No way was he showering with Dan here. He wiped himself down as well as he could with his soiled clothes, and hurried back to STRQ's room long before Dan finished.

The essay was still waiting on his desk when he got back.


	39. Taiyang—Dannit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, _somebody's_ third eye is wide open. Thanks for the kind words, canaryrose. Please leave some suspense for the rest of the class : )

Something felt wrong. Qrow seemed… Tai shook his head. It had been bothering him since yesterday, but he couldn't place it. And why wouldn’t Qrow want help?

"Taiyang! Is he all right?" Peter Port called, dragging a mop and bucket from the small closet between the bathrooms. He'd come over to investigate why Dan was screaming his head off, and promptly volunteered to get cleaning supplies.

"I mean, he's not great," Tai said, following him back down the hall. "I'm getting him something to change into."

"Oh, dear. How unfortunate."

Unfortunate. Yeah, that pretty much summed up the weekend. First the twins come home from class looking like death, then the gamestation acting up, then the _lovely_ little embarrassment at the thrift store, and now _food poisoning_ of all things.

Port reached the door and started on the mess. Tai reached out— "Oh, Pete, I can get that."

"Nonsense! This is what I'm paid for."

"...You're paid to let us into our rooms when we forget our scrolls."

Peter raised the mop threateningly. "Go take care of your teammate."

"Yessir," Tai said, throwing his hands up and skirting around the business end to avoid needing a change of clothes for himself too. He stumbled into the room, careful not to step in anything, and—"Where's Raven?"

"Cafeteria."

Well, at least she wasn't following Qrow's lead in the next bathroom over. "Alone?"

"I _offered,_ " she grumbled, before pitching her voice up in a slightly mocking impersonation of her mother's. "Ozpin likes to make everyone work with different types of people! And, get along with your teammates!" Dropping back to her normal pitch, she set Carmine's apron on the desk and dropped her head into her book. "Come on, I'm _trying._ "

"What is with these two and accepting help?" Tai grumbled, turning toward Qrow's closet. "He's bent over the toilet and won't let me get his clothes for him!" The door opened with a creak, and Tai paused, glancing over its contents.

His bedroll took up the top shelf, the glasses and scarf from yesterday on the one beneath it along with his pajamas. School uniforms hung neatly in a row next to his armor, and a small leather bag—the right size to hold a couple of textbooks—sat in the bottom with a tiny pile of dirty laundry. Three or four pieces of dingy, worn-out clothing at most. 

Tai's sense of unease solidified as the reason for it clicked into place. "Summer?"

"Huh?"

"They used to work on a farm. Not their family farm, someone else's."

"Yeah…?"

"They had jobs."

She nodded, frowning as she glanced at the near-empty closet. "...Probably room and board, too." Sliding from her chair, she crossed to Raven’s and cracked it open— "So why don't they own _anything?_ " she asked the identically bare shelves.

"I mean, Qrow likes _comics_. They're only a few lien each, the Kingdoms pay most of the cost. So why doesn't he have any?"

Summer's eyebrows pushed together. "He said yesterday one of the other hands trashed them."

"Something's wrong," Tai muttered, grabbing the pajamas. 

***

Qrow sat on the floor, leaning against the toilet, paler than Grimm bone and still out of breath.

"…This was all I could find," Tai said, holding the clothes out.

"Thanks," he murmured, reaching up but keeping his eyes down. He paused for a moment, as if about to speak, but then closed his mouth and said nothing.

Tai offered a hand. "Come on, I'll help you over to the shower."

 "I'm okay, really," he rasped, using the toilet seat to push himself to his feet. "I'll meet you in the room in a few minutes." Qrow glanced at him through his bangs, eyes darting up toward his face before returning to the floor. The clothes shook in his hand, white-knuckled with tension, and… and it wasn't because he was sick.

... _Scared_. They were scared.

The twins weren't weird, or asocial, it wasn't culture shock—they were _always terrified._

Something was very, very wrong. 

Should he ask…? What would he even _say_ , though? " _Why are you scared all the time_ " was probably not a great way to get either of them to open up. " _Hey, why are you so poor?_ " was worse. 

Tai shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "If you're sure." 

 "Yeah. Thanks." Qrow smiled like it was hurting him. Tai took a step back to let him past, but he closed the stall door and started to change on the other side. 

 _What do we know for sure?_ It was almost more of a habit than a question… but maybe the twins would be a little easier to figure out than Ozpin.

 _Okay, first, they don't own anything._ He headed toward the bathroom door, scratching his neck. _And what they do have is beyond shabby. If they really had jobs, they didn't pay much. If they have parents they either can't or won't take care of them._ His stomach lurched. 

"Hey, I'll be out in a minute. Hold up?" Dan called, peeking around the shower curtain.

"Sure," Tai said, hopping onto an empty washing machine to wait. _Second, they can fight. Really fight. ...The teachers don't correct their technique much either, so they're probably not self-taught. And telling the truth about learning from a Huntsman, from their styles._ He frowned. Though, the way they fight is different enough they might not have been taught by the same person…

 But both of them got their weapons from Carmine, we know that for sure too. So whatever they were using before wasn't good quality.

The stall door squeaked as he emerged, old clothes wadded in one hand. Tai stared at Qrow's back as he tossed them in the sink and started scrubbing with the hand soap. "You wanna borrow some detergent?" he asked, softly enough Dan wouldn't be able to hear over the water.

"No, thanks."

"...Hey, are you okay?" Couldn't hurt, right?

"M'fine," he mumbled.

"You don't… _seem_ all right."

What little of his reflection Tai could see over his shoulder twisted in fear. "I'm just sick."

"...Okay. Rest up.”

"Thanks." 

He watched as Qrow shuffled from the bathroom, rubbing at his shoulder. Maybe the curdling sensation in the pit of his stomach came from the lingering smell of the accident, but he couldn't shake the thought something was very, very wrong.

 _What else do we know. They_ **_are_ ** _from Anima, it's on their student IDs. I don't think they were lying about coming from the middle of nowhere. ...Their work is the only thing that doesn't fit. So if they weren't farmhands, why would they lie? And if they were... what happened?_

"Well, that was fun," Dan griped, pulling his t-shirt down as he walked out of the stall and tossed his towel on the counter. "Starting to think you're jinxed, man."

Tai shook his head to clear it, giving him a sideways glance. "Huh?"

"Oh, y'know. Our friend going to the wrong school. Spraining your ankle during initiation, the three of us getting split up, Ozpin picking on you at the obstacle course. And don't forget getting detention on the first day of class."

Tai snorted.

"I'm just saying, whatever funk you've got going on, keep it to yourself," Dan laughed back, play-punching his arm.

"Sure, Dan. I'll make sure you don't trick me into wearing a skirt to Grimm Studies."

"I still can't believe he fell for that." Dan grabbed the comb out of his shower basket and started on his hair. "There's the worst luck of all, getting stuck with a teammate that can't even walk through a door without screwing something up."

He rolled his eyes. "Dude. Come on. There was an accident. It's nobody's fault." 

"Well, he could have looked where he was going."

 _So could you._ Better change the subject before he got invested in it. "Yeah, whatever. Did you see the new trailer for—"

"Tai, I'm serious." Dan set down the comb and turned to face him. "You need to be able to rely on your teammates. If you or Summer gets hurt because of their damn incompetence—"

 "Just let it _go_ , will you?" 

Dan scowled, tilting his head. "Why are you taking their side?"

"Why do there have to _be_ sides?" Tai spread his arms. "Why are you still so angry? Even Zaff isn't this upset, and he's the one freezing his ass off in Solitas!"

"They shouldn't be here!"

Tai almost laughed. "Dude, have you ever sparred with either of them? They should _definitely_ be here."

"So they're competent in a fight." He grabbed the comb and finished sweeping his hair into place. It was already halfway dry, but a few wet curls draped over the base of his neck. "Want do they want, a medal? That's a basic expectation, not something special—he doesn't even have a _Semblance!_ "

Annoyance cooled and hardened like hot steel plunged into water and any humor Tai might have been feeling vanished in the cloud of steam. "Neither does Summer."

"...Well, that's different," he protested, clearly trying to cover his ass. "She can fly."

"I don't see a difference," Tai snapped. He should _know_ better. They'd watched her frustration at Signal, how she stuck to the edges of the class during combat training, how much time she'd spent meditating. Hell—Qrow didn't even seem to care about his at all! Who was Dan even trying to insult?

"C'mon, Tai," he said airily, grabbing his stuff. "You're blowing this out of proporti—"

"I don't want to talk about this any more."

"What?" Dan threw an incredulous glance over his shoulder as he pushed the bathroom door open.

"Look. It'd be better if Zaff were here too, but there's nothing any of us can do about that. You're the _only_ one who won't accept it," Tai said. "He says you don't even call him!"

He leaned back in a swagger that he probably thought was charming. "Do you really want me talking to my ex?"

"YES!" Tai shouted, and Dan flinched in surprise. "Because, yeah, I like you, but the most important thing is that we all stay friends!" _Deep breaths. Shouting never helped anything._ "...Y'know, Ozpin keeps saying that we need to learn to work with different people. I'm starting to think he's right. We _were_ too comfortable with the four of us."

"You think th—"

"Dan, just because we're not all on the same team any more doesn't mean that we're _not_ a team! Qrow and Raven are our friends now, too. I'm sick of listening to you rag on them." He pushed past, out into the hallway.

"It's _okay_ to say you feel sorry for them."

Tai froze, staring back at him. "What?"

"I mean, you've seen the shit they wear—and they wear their uniforms or gear most of the time so they don't have to! They hoard food from the cafeteria when they think no one's looking." 

Tai's stomach lurched. 

"All they've got on their shelves are schoolbooks. I get it, they're kinda pathetic. But they don't need to go to Beacon to get a roof over their heads and three meals a day, there are plenty of services in Vale—"

How had Dan noticed, but he hadn't? "I'm done with this conversation."

"Tai—"

"I said I'm _done_."

"All right. Fine. I'm sorry," Dan said with a tone that spoke louder than the words. " _You're making such a huge deal over nothing, Tai, calm down."_ It had the opposite effect, if he was being honest with himself, and it took effort to keep from being drawn back into the fight. "Oh hey, did you see the new trailer for Fatal Fray 3?"

"...Yeah." 

_Why can't we all just get along?_

At least Dan wasn't insulting Qrow to his face any more. Small victories.


	40. Summer—A Moment's Peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a bad weekend so I'm posting two chapters. I want to post a nice chapter and leave everyone on a high note this week but the one that was scheduled isn’t fluffy, this one is.
> 
> Anyway **make sure you've read chapter 39**

Summer hissed at her scroll in frustration. Of course farmers in rural Anima wouldn't post job listings online—Qrow and Raven barely knew how to use a scroll the first week. But a typical contract would have to include room and board, though, right? It's what made sense.

But then _what_ was going on?

The door clicked, and Summer opened her mouth to ask Tai what had happened—but it was Qrow who stepped through. "Oh! Are you feeling better?"

He stared miserably at his desk before walking to the closet and pulling it open a crack. He shoved his things to the side and hung his dripping clothes over the bar. "Yeah. ...Where's Raven?"

"She went to get food. Where's Tai?"

"...With Dan," he muttered. 

Oh, no. He must have heard Dan yelling—the whole building probably heard it. "I— I don't think he meant that, he was freaking out and—" she cut off as Qrow stared at her, bewildered. "...Never mind."

He half-shrugged before slumping back into his chair, picking up his pen like it was carved from gravity Dust and starting to shuffle through the book.

"Qrow, you should rest!"

"I just wanna get it over with," he said again.

 _And how is making yourself sicker going to help with that?_ "Fine. Then I'll help you. It's for history, right? What's it about?"

"...No, you're right, I should do this later." Qrow shut the book on his notes and dropped it in a desk drawer before setting his head down.

Summer scowled at her scroll, considering. It couldn't hurt to do a bit of gentle prying… "Huang—Tai's dad—would always make us oatmeal or chicken noodle soup when we were sick, growing up. Do you and Raven have something like that?"

"We ate whatever the farm's cooks gave us."

Not very helpful for cheering either of them up, but it did answer the room and board question. "...Well, what did you do for fun, then?"

"Reading."

Oh, right, she could give him the Grimm Reaper scans! That'd cheer him up. ...Right after they were done talking. "Just comics?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he mumbled. "They're—they don't take up much space." 

Interesting. 

"I, uh, got pretty good at carving too." He stood and crossed back to the closet, opening it just wide enough to fish something out of the bag on the floor. Unrolling the rags, he passed her an action figure that fit comfortably in her palm.

"Wait. You _made_ this?" Summer gasped, lifting the little wooden Grimm to her eye. "It's so cute!"

He chuckled. "Only you would call a Beowolf cute."

"But he is! Look at his little _teeth!_ " she said, turning it in her hands. How did he cut such tiny details? "...Is this _real_ bone?"

"Cow, deer, whatever was lying around," he shrugged. "I stained the fur with coffee and vinegar. Paint wasn't, uh, easy to get."

"We should get some! You could do the markings and eyes!"

He scratched his neck, looking at the rags in his hand. "I dunno… I've never even held a brush before –"

"Aww, come on. This little guy deserves a face," she mocked a pout, holding it up next to her cheek. "I wonder what kind would work best…"

"Bone's fairly porous, I don't think it'd be hard to find something that sticks."

"Are there more?" she asked, with a pointed glance at his hand.

"Y-yeah." He dragged his chair closer, setting two more bundles on her desk. Gently, she unwound the first to reveal an absurdly detailed Nevermore. Individual feathers were etched into the wood, some even carved to look like they were blowing in the wind as it flew. The second—

"Look at her tiny scythes!" Summer squealed, setting the Nevermore down and snatching the Grimm Reaper up instead. She wasn't stained dark like the others, though her mask and blades were bone. "And her mask! This is amazing! Qrow, we have to get you some paint."

"There's no way I could paint that one! Everything would be too small."

Summer set the figure on the desk next to the other two and crossed to her own closet. "Well, I have no idea how to carve, but I did learn to paint figures when Tai and I started playing Grottoes and Grimm…" She pushed aside some of her clothes, taking out a small box from the shelf behind. "I didn't bring all my stuff, but I've got our player characters. Here!"

She drew a couple pieces from the box and headed back over to him, dropping them into his hands. "The figures are just molded plastic, but I did the color."

"They're amazing," Qrow said, peering at the little spear-wielding Huntress with a small smile. "Why don't you paint them?" he asked, looking back at his own figures.

She blinked. "I—I couldn't! They're yours, and –"

"You should! You're really good."

"O-okay." She fought back a huge smile. Keep it cool. "I'll bring my paints back after winter break. It'd be fun to try playing Grottoes and Grimm, but Zaff was our GM…"

"Zaff?"

"Oh, that was Dan's old partner. The one at Atlas."

"...Did Dan play?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Never had the patience. …Actually, I'm not sure Raven would either…" 

He glanced at the little Grimm Reaper before staring at his knees. When he spoke, it was barely audible. "What's Dan like?" 

Summer's shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry… he's not usually so rude. I mean, he's rude a lot, but not like he's been with you and Raven." The jokes had ranged from mean-spirited to downright crude until she and Tai finally got him to stop. "I mean, we weren't… trying to be mean with the skirt thing…" 

Qrow laughed. "No, that was pretty funny. And I've been getting compliments on my legs all semester, so…"

Summer snorted, covering her mouth and nose with a fist. 

"But, he's never… scared you or Tai, or…"

What the hell? "What happened?"

"N-nothing!" he shrugged, shoulders too tense, avoiding her eye. "I... just get a weird feeling from the guy sometimes."

"...Why are you covering for him? He's said some awful things to you."

Qrow stared silently at his knees for a few seconds before answering. "He—he's your friend, I… I don't want to cause problems."

Summer grabbed his hand and stood, pulling him to his feet and into a hug. "You're our friend too."

“I—it just—" he stammered, rigid with surprise. 

"He's the one being an ass." She sighed. "Okay. I get not wanting to fight with Tai's boyfriend. If he's weirding you out just… come find us. Or a teacher. He won't bother you if there's other people around." 

Slowly, his tension flowed away. "Thanks."

"...You can hug back, you know," she teased, and he quickly wound his arms around her back in return. “Wanna read the Grimm Reaper comics? We could put the scans up on the obscura, it’s kind of hard to see on a scroll—”

“Hell yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally... a much-needed hug.
> 
>  
> 
> The obscura is the television. It feels weird to use the word television in a world that calls phones "scrolls"


	41. Taiyang—Off Track

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was apprehensive that canon was going to mess with my plans for this book/the series, leading to lots of editing, massive rewrites, or declaring the story non-canon and definitely ending after only one book.
> 
> I can now confidently say that the only thing that broke was my heart.

Professor Mesánychta held her hand up and curled her fingers into a fist, bringing the class to a halt and silence in one move. Pete drew his weapon, a hazardous-looking combination of blunderbuss and battleaxe that would have made Carmine break out in hives if a new student brought in its schematics.

"Welcome back to the Emerald Forest." She turned to face the students as Pete continued to monitor the trees. "Now that everyone has learned the basics of tracking, it is time to practice them. From now on our lab hours each week will be spent off school grounds. Each session your team will be given a specific target to eradicate in the area. Your goal is to destroy as many of your target Grimm as you can while avoiding all other varieties." A few hushed whispers broke out in the class. "Ordinarily, Huntsmen and Huntresses would destroy any Grimm in their path that they safely could, but there are many instances in which you may find you need to avoid trouble. If someone were injured, or you were escorting civilians, for example."

"Your scrolls will keep track of your targets as well as your kills," Pete said. "And as always, be on your guard. Your primary objective is to live to fight another day!"

Summer tapped her scroll closed before buttoning it back in her pocket. "Looks like we've got Ursa. Shouldn't be too hard to find." Around them, the other teams began to disperse, most with their eyes glued to the ground.

"It'll be harder to avoid the Beowolves," Qrow agreed. Raven stalked away without a word, straight toward the nearest pine and darted up—almost faster than Summer could have with Gungnir.

"Uh… what's she doing?" Summer asked. "She knows we're supposed to do this as a team, right?"

"We used to hunt deer a lot at home. Uh—extra food, y'know?" he said, glancing over his shoulder. "She's looking for water. Grimm usually leave animals alone, but use the same paths. It's a good place to pick up a trail."

Raven dropped from the tree and took off west. "This way."

"How do you know there's water down there?" Summer asked, half-jogging to keep pace with Raven in the front of the group.

"The plants are always more vibrant where it's close to the surface," she murmured. Another team crept through the bushes to their left, examining the ground as they walked. "The trees this way are taller, greener. It's the best place to look."

Tai craned his neck over the others. "That's a lot of guesswork."

“More precise than what they're doing," Raven muttered, quietly enough the other team wouldn't hear.

The hill eventually evened out. Undergrowth thickened and snagged at their clothes—or in Tai's case, at his aura. _I knew I should have zipped on the pants today._ Five minutes in, no sign of trouble, and he was already down a point.

"…What's deer taste like?" Summer asked, untangling her sleeve from a raspberry bush.

Qrow glanced back. "You've never had it?"

"You can't exactly buy it at the supermarket. And there are no deer on Patch." Tai said. "Plus Dad's not really into hunting. Zaff's dad is, though—he likes duck. Every fall he trades us a few for a couple pounds of chestnuts. Lot of trees near our house."

"...What kind of meat _do_ you eat?" Raven asked.

"Y'know…Pork, chicken, beef…the same stuff they have in the cafeteria," Summer said, scanning the trees for trouble. "Why _don't_ farms raise deer, anyway?"

The twins stopped in unison to look back at the two of them. "Because they're bastards."

"Huh?"

"Try fencing in an animal that can jump over your head," Qrow added.

"And if you _somehow_ manage to corner one it'll kick the shit out of you."

"Oh." Summer nodded. "That makes sense. But what's it taste like?"

Qrow scratched his neck. "Well, it's the most like beef…"

"Tell you what," Raven said, pausing and squinting down at a bit of dirt. "If you shoot a deer Qrow and I will show you how to process it."

"...Um. I don't think that would go over well with Professor Mesánychta."

"I didn't mean during class." Raven knelt, inspecting the soil. Now that she’d drawn attention to it he could see the path had been  a little trampled. "There's—"

"Wait! Let me guess, and tell me if I'm right," Tai said, kneeling next to her. She stared, taken aback, but allowed him in for a closer look. "From the claws…Beowolf?"

"…Creep." Raven pointed at the longer grooves cut in around the claw marks. "You can see where their tails hit the ground."

"Oh." The size had thrown him off. "That's a _big_ Creep."

"And not what we're looking for," Raven said, standing and walking in the opposite direction that the tracks led.

They followed the trail for another fifteen minutes, finding plenty of signs of smaller Grimm but nothing as large as an Ursa yet. Qrow and Raven quietly pointed out the traces the other two missed, largely leading the way.

"Wait. What's that?" Summer asked, pointing at a broken sapling. "Was it recent?"

Raven grabbed the trunk and snapped it again, further down, comparing the first break to the second. "No more than a couple days. There's so many Grimm in the area it doesn't tell us much."

"I'll see if I can spot anything from up there," Summer said, firing her arrow into a nearby oak before taking off.

"It'd be the right size," Tai glanced around the base of the broken tree. "Do you see any prints?"

Qrow crouched, shrugging. "Nothing clear enough to say it's not an Alpha Beowolf." A shadow rippled through the bush behind him, and Tai almost ignored it—the sun had been dancing through the leaves all morning—

—but right now there was no wind. "Oh, no, it's _definitely_ an Alpha Beowolf," Tai said, flicking the shield on his left arm open. Qrow whirled back to his feet, drawing his sword and extending it to full length as the monster's head rose over the bush.

"We don't want to fight that one!" she shouted, halfway up the oak.

"Uh, that may not be an option, Summer!"

"I got it!" She slammed the arrow down the barrel of her gun and fired, sending it over the wolf and into a distant tree. With a screech, she leapt down, activating the gravity Dust about just above the ground. As she rose again both of her boots made solid contact with the side of its head—

WHAM.

The Grimm pitched over into another pine, shoulder spines embedding in the bark. It lurched, clawing in vain at the three of them and snarling furiously.

"Time to run!" Summer shouted, landing neatly in the tree next to the arrow and popping it from the wood.

*    *    *

"So what's our plan of attack?" Tai hissed.

"I mean, I can shoot at least two before they notice us," Summer said, sighting down Gungnir's scope at the largest of the pack. Nearly twice the size of the others, it was probably the reason the rest of the group had congregated. Its back was so covered in spines it looked more like a porcupine than a bear, but it was definitely still an Ursa.

"I don't like the look of that Major," Raven muttered, sword already drawn and her other hand primed to shoot an ice blade. "I think it'll take more than one shot."

"Not if I hit it in the eye."

"Or, we could try to draw a few of them off," Qrow suggested. "There are seven over there. It's a bit much for just the four of us."

"Hey, come on," Tai said, grinning. "It’s been over a month and you haven't _really_ seen me fight yet. We can take 'em."

"Okay, I'll shoot the Ursa Major. Then what?"

"Then shoot it again," Raven said. "To be safe."

“I could lure them into that gully," Qrow said, pointing past them at the ditch. "Raven, you could portal me out and then we fire at them from above."

"You're the only one with a gun that's any good for rapid attacks," Summer countered.  "But if I were up in the trees I could cover you all."

Though… Raven's Semblance opened up some interesting possibilities.

"No way. There's too many, they'll knock one of these trees right over with you in it," Raven said.

"I'll leave the arrow in another tree so I can get away quickly."

"Raven…" Tai murmured, interrupting their debate. "…Could you bring a Grimm through a portal?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I.... may have jumped ahead.... and written all the scenes where Qrow gets hugs. For the rest of the book.  
> I would share but they're all very spoilery don't @ me


	42. Raven—Golden Dragon

Gungnir's blast rolled like thunder through the trees, electric Dust round streaking toward the Ursa Major in a glowing trail of sparks. The massive Grimm stumbled and collapsed as smoke billowed from cracks in its faceplate. Another shot felled a second, smaller target.

Raven darted forward straight at the remaining five. Alerted, they searched for the source of either the noise or the thin scent of apprehension in the air.

One spotted her, rearing on its hind legs with a powerful roar and exposing its unarmored belly. Without thinking her hand squeezed the trigger of the Guillotine's sheath and a blade shot out with a ringing crash. Great spikes of ice erupted from the bear's fur, twisting its form into a grotesque pose before it faded to nothing. Three dead.

A second barrelled toward her, bellowing in rage or hunger, and Raven lashed out with her sword. The air split, and the bear vanished. 

Gungnir sounded again. Four. 

Qrow's shotgun echoed the blast, almost drowning out the snapping of branches and roar of the Ursa as it plummeted fifty feet from his treetop perch to the forest floor below. The fall wouldn't be enough to finish it, but Tai was waiting. Five...

They needed a second to ensure it wasn't getting up. Raven flipped back, away from the last two—make that one, as Summer fired agai—

Her side erupted in agony, and then a blow to her left shoulder, right knee, her head. The world was nothing but red and she _screamed_ , and louder as something clamped her neck and the arm thrown up to protect it. Weight slammed into her back, the vice wrenched, tightened. Her aura drained like blood from an artery and with the last of it she reached for her brother—

One final, smaller impact and the pressure released. She crawled away, still blind, screaming again at the searing heat of cracked ribs knitting together—and the world cleared as her aura failed. A pace behind, the Ursa Major growled at Qrow and snapped its teeth, smoke still trickling from its skull.

“RUN!" he screamed, eyes locked on the bear. It roared and swiped at him with a paw larger than both of Tai's shields. Raven scuttled backward as he dodged and it ploughed into the dirt with a heavy thud. " _DEAL!_ “

" _Wait!_ " Lurching to her feet, Raven turned and staggered away. He must not have seen her aura break or he wouldn't dare boost his Semblance now. "It was playing dead! It's older than we thought!" Raven clutched her side as she ran. The thing had dragged her halfway across the clearing and Guillotine was back where she'd started.

"They can do that?" Tai demanded, smoke trailing from his gauntlets as he tore past. Gungnir's arrow sank into its shoulder before pulling free a moment later, unable to dig in far enough to get purchase.

Raven seized her scabbard and took aim. Qrow swung at the thing's neck, sword bouncing off its matted fur and barely cutting in at all.

"FOLD!" Raven shouted, giving him a chance to shut off his Semblance before firing. It shattered on the bear's armored hide, clumping ice on its pelt, and the Grimm whirled to face her with a snarl. Tai leapt forward, directing all of his momentum into its ear.

Summer dropped from the tree, emptying her magazine of electric rounds one bullet at a time. "What are you doing?! You're out of aura!" 

"We've got this!" Tai kept attacking, golden flames licking around him with every blow, pouring down his back almost like wings. It gave up trying to bat at him and just lunged, slamming into him—the fire dissipated instantly as staggered.

Qrow took the distraction as an opportunity to spray its skull with buckshot. The Grimm roared again, charging forward blindly, and he disappeared under its paws with a surprised yelp. 

" _NO!_ " The last ice blade clicked into the handle and Raven drew as she charged back in, right knee throbbing with every step. 

Tai slammed all his weight into the thing's chin, smoke swirling around them both, and it staggered back. Qrow gasped as its foot lifted from his chest and then screamed as a foreleg landed on his bad shoulder. The Grimm seemed to notice he was there, blinking down with its three remaining eyes, opening its mouth to bite.

Raven leapt forward, ramming her sword as far down its throat as she could reach, trusting her vambrace to keep her arm from being shredded by its teeth. The hilt disengaged with a brush of the trigger and she jumped back. She couldn't activate the Dust without aura, but it would _have_ to break as the bear moved—

—but Tai followed through, ramming one gauntleted hand into the end of the blade. Ice erupted through the Ursa's fur to mingle with the bony spines, stabbing it through in a dozen places. Raven grabbed her brother and dragged him back as it roared in pain. Icicles snapped as it shook violently, smoke pouring from the wounds.

Summer turned away from the Grimm to scream at the twins. " _Get ba—_ "

" _What do we have to do to kill this thing?!_ " Tai shrieked, catching a paw on his combined shields before it could flatten her. She dove around him to jab Gungnir's point into another glowing eye and stepped smoothly back behind his shield as it retaliated. 

Qrow staggered to his feet, sword in his left hand, and swung at the thing's neck. The shotgun barrels rotated into position, and he pulled the trigger at the last moment to drive the blade home with the recoil. It cut much deeper than before despite his weakened state.

It turned toward them, but Raven was ready. A bolt of lightning—blinding compared to the sparks of Summer's bullets—struck its side from the scabbard, shattering on its thick skin, and she yanked Qrow back again as the beast seized. 

Tai leapt forward, shields folding away, and slammed a fist into its cracked faceplate. 

Flames roared from his hands as he kept up the barrage, easily dodging its exhausted swipes and snaps. His wings reignited with a flash, whirling around the pair of them, and he brought both fists down on its head. The bone finally split and the Ursa disappeared in a haze of smoke and sparks.

Qrow froze where he'd sprawled on the ground, staring wide-eyed at the Huntsman and still clutching his shoulder. "Whoa."

“Well, that’s my Semblance," Tai said cheerfully, stretching. Golden flecks faded from his eyes with the last of the flames. “The more hits I dish out during a fight, the stronger I get—especially if I can get a rhythm to resonate. But it resets when I take dama—”

" _What were you thinking?!_ " Summer demanded, stepping him and the two of them, hands tightening on her spear.

Oh gods. Oh gods they knew and they were just waiting for their chance and now her aura was gone and Qrow couldn't use his right arm—she couldn't open a portal and they'd never escape the Huntress on foot, she didn't even need to chase them when she could just shoot them both before they even made it out of the clearing—

Summer's eyes widened. "S-sorry." Gungnir collapsed with a flick of her wrist.

"The fight's over, Raven." Qrow took her arm, gently pushing it down. Her sword—she was holding her sword up like she was going to fight the Huntress. It fell from her hands with a gasp like it had burned. Wait—no—she'd just threatened them, given everything away, she needed her weapon—

Tai rubbed his eyes. "We shouldn't have sent you in there alone. Sorry, that was a stupid idea."

"And I should have put both rounds into the Major like you said…"

"Raven?" Qrow's hand moved to her other shoulder, wrapping his arm around her back, pulling her toward him.

Coddling.

“I'm fine," she snapped, stepping out of his half-embrace to collect her fallen sword, shoving it in the sheath with a quiet  _ snick _ before turning north and striding away. "We should get out of here before we're attacked again."

"Wha— wait!" Tai shouted, leaves crunching under his boots as he ran toward her. Raven reached one hand into her belt, to the concealed handle of her knife— "At least let us walk in front, come on!" Her step faltered, and he passed before turning to face her again. "I'm really sorry. We won't ask you to do that again."

What? 

She'd always gone in alone. Ever since she was seven, it was logical. She could get out of danger with a single step or summon backup if she got pinned. It's what she was  _ for. _

"Hey, don't look like that! I'm not gonna get us lost when we're following  _ that _ ," he laughed, pointing up at the cliffs just barely visible through the canopy above them. "Give me some credit!"

"I'll bring up the rear," Summer said, re-extending her rifle but clipping the arrow to her belt so she could use the stock. "You're pretty beat up too, Qrow. You okay? What's going on with your shoulder?"

"Eh, I'll be fine in a few minutes," he said, casually clipping his sword to his back left-handed. “An Ursa kind of landed on it."

"That sword upgrade sure came in handy."

"Well…" his voice lifted like it always did when he talked about the damn thing. "It's not really an upgrade since it's an entirely different sword. We used the old one as a blueprint 'cause I liked the shape."

Raven stared him down, expressionless. "It still seems overcomplicated to me." 

He fell silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am Very Angry with Ironwood for hurting my son. 
> 
> Penny is awesome and I couldn't have picked better.
> 
> Somebody please help Qrow. CRWBY I am begging you. He does not deserve this. Give him hugs and support
> 
>  
> 
> Well, I'll be here all hiatus. See you next week


End file.
